Shin
by Ni Lemur
Summary: Being transported to the world of shinobi and dumped in the middle of a struggle between Akatsuki and Konoha, while simultaneously turning into a four year old, isn't Shin's idea of a good time. Hiatus due to embarrassment and the author maturing.
1. Lawyer Lady and a Life Changing Bargain

**Summary:**

_The short version:_ Girl have big adventure in ninja-land.

_Slightly longer version:_ Shin is unwillingly thrown into the world of shinobi, where things really aren't flowing smoothly. The Akatsuki are trying to get their hands on four scrolls that will assist them in calling forth a demon. But another group of shinobi, called the Roujo-nins have different ideas and when failing to protect their scroll they set out to elliminate the demon before it can be unleashed. Shin can only think of one demon that would get all these ninjas interested and she decides to warn him. But why has she suddenly turned into a four year old? Who is the creepy cloaked guy that seems to be attached to her by an invisable umbilical cord? What is this strange connection between her and this whole drama? And above all; How will she manage to hide from a certain Academy Instructor that is promptly insisting on giving her a bath?

**Keywords in this** **plot:** The black scrolls, Kuroneko and Uchiha, secrets and self-discovery. Also: ADVENTURES IN NINJA-LAND!! YAY!!

* * *

_Thoughts_

"Speech"

**Shin**

_By: Ni Lemur_

**Prologue:** Drizzle

Exhausted to the brink of collapsing, she threw herself under the protecting large roots of a gigantic tree.

"_Get in here!_", she hissed urgently at the shadowy figure crouching a few paces away.

He didn't falter for a second and was hunched beside her before she could blink. Shouts were heard in the distance. She could practically see her heart pumping from strain and nervousness, through her soaked shirt. There was little room where they were sitting and not the best of hiding places but the noise was drawing closer and they had no choice but to stay put if they wanted to avoid detection.

She groaned and slapped a muddy hand in her face, wondering exactly where she'd gone wrong. It had to be breakfast. She usually skipped breakfast. Not really being a morning person she didn't get hungry until twelve and that's when she would have lunch. But today she had eaten breakfast like everybody else and just look what happened.

_On the other hand_, she thought, _getting out of bed at all this morning had been a really bad move. Or maybe I just should have skipped dinner to compensate for the breakfast, and balance my karma._

**Chapter One:** The Lawyer Lady and a Life Changing Bargain

Fancy Restaurant, Dinner

"Shin!"

The girl stopped pushing her food around and looked up at the middle-aged woman across the table. Her strict suite very clearly stated that she was somebody important who made a lot of money and the stern face that usually was adorned by a superior smirk, told everyone that she enjoyed it.

Now however, she was not smirking.

"Shin, put down that fork and listen to me"

"I _am_ listening", Shin sighed and began impaling peas with said fork.

"Good, then I want you to explain this!", the important lady produced a piece of paper from under the table and waved it in the girls direction, "What have I told you about bringing those abominating abilities of yours to class. The principal has already sent me several warnings, and now this?", she shook the paper a little more to prove her point, "I don't know what to do with you. This is a disgrace. I never would have believed that you'd go this far. Turning the classroom into a casino! Keep this behaviour up and you'll end up in jail, and trust me, you don't want to go there. I've seen so many young people slip and end up as criminals. You should be thankful that you have someone here to guide you"

Shin rolled her eyes at the lawyers exagerations. This speech of good kids turning bad because they didn't brush their teeth regularly, was getting old.

"Don't role your eyes at me! I'm only trying to help. I want to do what's best for you", the woman made an attempt at a motherly smile.

Shin watched her grimace and wondered if it hurt as bad as it looked.

"So you see, I'm not telling you this to scare you. But if you don't learn to follow the rules, it'll never end well"

The girl let her gaze wander to a particularly interesting cart with desserts and pretended that she didn't hear what her company was saying. But the woman wasn't giving up.

"Your teachers say you're a bad influence on the younger students and the principal is very concerned about you breaking the school policy. He wants you to apologize, and if you don't, you will get suspended for two weeks, which will go on your permanent record. Do you understand?"

Shin was still eyeing a very alluring cup of chocolate-mousse and absent-mindedly trying to pin a few more peas without looking. She new exactly why the lawyer was so anxious about her permanent record and all the letters from the angry principal. And it wasn't because of her maternal love. No, it was much simpler than that. Greed. She got her monthly pay-check in exchange for making sure Shin was alive and didn't disturb anyone important. Unfortunately for her, the boarding-school principal was an important man.

"Shiiin?", the woman was using her false sweet tone, meaning she was about to bring out the heavy artillery.

Shin stuffed the pea filled fork in her mouth and turned towards her with a challenging dead-pan look. What was she going to do this time? Take away her allowance? Ground her? Drive her to the dock, bury her feet in cement and let her sleep with the fishes.

"Are you going to cooperate?", she asked with a very strained smile.

As an answer to this, Shin stuck out her tongue showing a disgusting green mush. The lawyer just sat there at first looking at it with a bland expression, and after a few seconds she let her gaze drop to her lap with a sigh.

Then her head snapped up to stare at the girl with a grave expression.

"Alright, brat!", she began calmly, folding her hands on the table and giving Shin the impression of a mafia boss, "I've had it with you. How about a deal?"

"What kind of deal?", Shin asked suspiciously.

Usually the lady just punished her and left her alone.

"We trade. It's clear that nothing I do will make you change, so I purpose a bargain. You give me what I want and I'll give you something you want"

Shin leaned back in her chair with a scowl.

"Hn.., like you'd have anything I want"

The older woman sneered.

"Wouldn't I? And here I thought you were longing to get your hands on a certain scroll"

At this Shin's eyes widened and she sat up straight.

"How do you know about that?", she demanded.

"Please", the lawyer rolled her eyes at the ceiling, "I remember the huge fuss you made about it five years ago, when it went into storage with the rest of your mothers belongings. That break-in you pulled wasn't exactly subtle"

Shin almost let out a growl at the memory.

"And now you want to buy my obedience with it?", she stated crossing her arms and leaning against the back support once more.

"Well, I'm not so foolish as to think you'll behave once you have it, but I think it's fair that you apologize to the teachers and of course, the principal if I give it to you. I am, after all breaking the law by handing it over before you're eighteen"

"Hmph! I hardly believe you hold the law in such a high regard"

The lawyer ignored her remark and her face was again business-like.

"Do we have a bargain or not?"

Shin glanced at the cart.

"In that case I want chocolate-mousse included"

"Fine! But then you will hand over that cursed card-deck. I don't want anymore complaints from the school about gambling during class", the lady held out her hand across the table.

Shin shrugged. She'd just buy another one when she got her allowance. No one was going to keep her from her cards.

"Deal!", she agreed and pulled out the deck from her back pocket and slapped it down in the outstretched hand.

The lady suspiciously opened little box to check its' contents, while Shin immediately waved the cart over.

"By the way", the lady added, closing the box again, as Shin stuffed a large spoon-full in her mouth, "I'm pulling in your allowance this month"

* * *

A/N: 

Is this my first posted fan fic? -Yes.

Am I happy with it? -So far.

Do I know what I'm doing? -More or less.

Do I actually have a real plot in mind, ending and all? -One that I am most proud over.

Is every chapter going to be this short? -I'm starting to suspect that they're getting longer every time I sit down to write.

So I have a few chapters done already? -Quite a few.

Will reviews be appreciated? -Hell yeah!

Flames will be used to light the candles on my Kimimaro-altar.

Hope you enjoy it!

Ja ne/ Ni Lemur


	2. Damn Aslan and his stupid wardrobes

O.o.O.o.O.o.O

**Chapter two:** Damn Aslan and his stupid wardrobes

O.o.O.o.O.o.O

-

_Why do they have to make such a big deal out of this? I wasn't tricking anyone. Not really anyway…They could have just called my bluff and have an old fashioned fist fight about it, but noo! Those back stabbing jerks had to go and tattle to the teachers. _

_And _I_ wasn't even the one who suggested we'd play about money in the first place! Sore losers! Stupid, up-tight principal… _

"It's just a few cards", Shin muttered out loud, sitting down on her bed and pulling of her jeans.

_Well, at least I got my scroll_, she reminded herself as she was trying to wriggle into a pair of grey and orange Garfield shorts without standing up.

Outside the window a clear and starry sky presented itself. She had just got back from her little outing with the lawyer lady. Shin had insisted on not doing anything she had been asked, until the lady had fulfilled her end of the bargain.

They had both gotten in the car and driven all the way to the other side of town and a couple of miles further, to get to the place where her mom's belongings where stored. It looked like a very large warehouse and inside wire fences separated the stuff that different people had gathered through their life, keeping them from mixing.

Shin had to keep herself from bouncing with excitement where she stood behind the guard who was unlocking the padlock. As soon as he had gotten the chain of the door, Shin was inside in a second.

There wasn't much in there. Most of the furniture they had owned had been sold and Shin's mother hadn't been one to hold on to stuff. Being in there with the old familiar items made Shin remember her and the life they had had together before she died.

An old photo lay on its back on top of a box and she smiled when she saw it. It depicted a twelve year old girl and a striking raven-haired woman grinning into the camera making victory signs. Most of the woman's head was covered by a beanie and made Shin recall that old habit of hers. No matter the weather or occasion, Shin's mother had always been wearing some kind of hat.

The lawyer clapped her hands impatiently.

"Come on! I haven't got all night"

Shin sent her a glare but turned back to the other possessions that rightfully should be hers. She immediately spotted what she was looking for behind one of the boxes. She snatched it of the floor and the lawyer eyed her suspiciously when they walked out, probably wondering if Shin's fast fingers had been able to pick up something else as well.

Shin sat on her bed in the darkness, looking at the aged scroll in her hands. She stroked it carefully with her fingers. Now was the time, she was finally going to find out why her mother had so badly wanted for her to have this scroll.

The last words she spoke to her daughter while still alive had been focused on this simple piece that Shin now cradled nervously in her hands, therefor they had etched themselves into the girl's memory like acid and she'd done everything she could to get it back.

'_Get it! Get the scroll!'_

But the scroll had been locked away for five years and now, finally, she was holding it in her hands. Shin reached out to break the seal but hesitated and looked over at her roommate's sleeping figure. Sometimes it really sucked having to live at a boarding school.

She stuck a hand in under the bed and retrieved a flashlight. Then she quietly slipped over to the closet and snuck inside, so as not to wake up the other girl.

"Let's see what this is all about then", she whispered to the darkness and broke the red insignia.

She paused, for a moment she thought she had felt a sent of wet forest. Shin shook her head, it was completely dry outside and not a forest in sight even if you weren't sitting in a closet.

Ignoring the tingling on the back of her neck she uncurled the paper and her examining gaze turned into a stare of surprise as her eyes swept over the paper.

_This_ was what her mother had told her to get with her dying breath? She knew her mom had been a fan of martial arts, but _seals_?

In her hands Shin held a detailed description in japanese and drawings of several seals that were meant to be perform with the hands. And the seals looked very familiar.

"_Naruto_?", she uttered in disbelief, "My mother wanted me to save a scroll of made-up seals from a _comic-book_?"

For a few more seconds she just stared at the ink drawings, thinking that someone must have switched the scrolls. But she knew what it looked like and this was the real thing.

"Fine!", Shin huffed silently and put it down in her lap.

She straightened her back and stared intently at the instructions.

_If this is what mom wanted me to have__, I'm not going to question it._

Slowly and thoroughly she went through the moves and increased the pace every time she had done them all right. For a master card trickster like herself, it didn't take long before she could do them in one fluent motion. When she had completed a series of perfect seals she smiled, pleased with herself and gazed down at the scroll and noticed a word hastily scribbled at the bottom.

"Ryokou..?", she mumbled still holding her hands in the last position.

There was a soft poof, and then the closet was empty except from a small cloud of smoke.

O.o.O.o.O.o.O

* * *

O.o.O.o.O.o.O

**A/N:**

I know... It's short. The chapters really do get longer later on. This one is only two pages or so, but I happen to have 42 more or less done.

And to **Demee**: I haven't decided on the romance departmeant yet, but there might be some hints. Nothing major though due to the appearance of our heroine. (As we will see in one of the _soon_ upcoming chapters ) I can however tell you that there will be fluffyness. Shin is going to run into many of the main characters and make as much of an impact on their lives as they they will on her's.

**NEXT CHAPTER: **Shin unknowinlgy sticks her nose in shinobi business and is nearly impalled. Who are those very familiar-looking ninja and who is the mysterious person with whom she hides under the roots of a giant tree?

Ja ne!

O.o.O.o.O.o.O


	3. Foreign Places and Fictional Characters

**O.o.O.o.O.o.O**

**Chapter Three**: Foreign Places and Fictional Characters

**O.o.O.o.O.o.O**

**-**

Shin felt the hair on her haid elevate slightly and there was a lifting sensation in the pit of her stomach. Like the floor had just vanished from under her. Which it probably had since she found herself lying face down in the dirt. Shin blinked in surprise and then she blinked a few more times before she finally regained control of her limbs when water went up her nose instead of air. She flew up into sitting position making drops of dirty water fly from the puddle.

_Puddle?_

Droplets from above created a myriad of small rings, disrupting each other when hitting the surface.

_Rain? It's raining? But it was clear outside just a minute ago._

A pained scream penetrated her thoughts and Shin jumped. Looking around she noticed she was in a large forest with trees the size of buildings.

_Amazing! I've never seen__ trees this size_.

She goggled at the leaves way up there, but was once again snatched back to reality (or something like it) when another strangled cry rang out through the woods.

Where was it coming from? She listened and moved in a general direction of the noise.

Shin snuck up to a big tree hiding behind it when she realised that she could hear the sound of fighting from the other side. The sound of clashing swords echoed in the clearing. Her curiosity had gotten her into a whole lot of trouble in the past and this was probably not going to be an exception. She simply didn't have the self control to resist.

Shin went down on all four and crawled around the base of the tree in shelter of the leaves from surrounding bushes and when she thought she could get a good view of the action she peaked up and was shocked at what she saw.

Before her a small battle was taking place. Or more like ending. The clearing was littered with unconscious men, and it was very obvious which team was winning even if they were seriously outnumbered. It was more like a massacre then a fair fight. The stronger guys looked vaguely familiar but Shin was too distracted by the bloody mask of a slaughtered victim by her feet, to notice. Another thing she failed to notice was that one of the fighters had spotted her. A big guy carrying a very large blade.

Suddenly Shin's head was tilting slightly to the side and just an inch from her right ear a knife, still vibrating from the hit, had sunk itself deeply into the bark of the tree she'd used for hiding place.

Shin looked up at the grey-skinned man who had thrown it. He was frowning.

_He tried to kill me_, Shin's mind screamed and her legs began to tremble, _That thing was aimed for my head. I would've been dead right now if not for…_

She became aware of a presence very close behind her. Whoever it was, he or she was the one keeping her head tilted in this strange angle.

A movement from the knife-throwing man snapped her out of her thoughts.

"Hm", he said with a smirk, which again made Shin believe she'd seen him somewhere before.

The man reached inside his black coat and pulled out another knife, same as the last one. The sharp object's appearance was also strangely familiar. Just as he was about to let it fly towards Shin and pierce her skull, his companion held out his hand as a signal for him to stop.

Surprised, Shin turned to look at the other man. Her look turned into a horrified stare as she realised who it was.

The black cloaks with red cloud patterns should have alerted her at once, but she had been too occupied to see the resemblance.

Shin's legs turned to boiled spaghetti when the intense gaze of the crimson eyed ninja caught her.

_This isn't happening__… I'm not believing any of this! I must have fallen asleep and now I'm dreaming. It's a dream! Those seals made me think of Naruto and I fell asleep in the closet! Yeah…, that's exactly what happened … Because it can't be…real… They're… _

"I...Itachi?", she whispered, still in shock.

(If you'd had a microscope you would have been able to see that the missing nin almost raised his eyebrow at hearing his name. But no one did and his expression seemed indifferent, because that's the way Itachi always looks. I love him anyway! squeal)

With incredible effort she tore her gaze away and turned to the other man whom she now immediately recognised.

"Ki..Kisa...me?", she stammered, her voice holding a twinge of sarcasm as if she was desperatly prepared to accept this all as a big joke.

She stared from one to the other. _I must be out of my mind!_

"A..a…", she was going to say something in the lines of 'Akatsuki', but shouts coming their way interrupted her rather embarrassing moment of realisation.

Shin was abruptly snatched of the ground and next thing she knew she was flying through the forest and away from the shouts.

The rain was slapping hard against her bare arms and made her hair plaster to her face. Shin, however, didn't notice this. She was preoccupied trying to straighten out her tangled mind and nurse her sanity back to a healthy level.

Thoughts like: _Why is it raining? Where am I? Why has characters from 'Naruto' come alive?_ And: _I thought Japanese people were supposed to be short!_, were currently going through her head.

When she felt her stomach lurch, another thought occurred to her.

_What's going on here_

Shin realised she was being carried, backwards, under somebody's arm. Most likely the same somebody who had saved her head from the flying kunai earlier. It also dawned on her that her saviour wasn't running. He was jumping between branches high up in the air. A fall from that height would probably break anything and everything in her entire body.

"STOP!", she screamed, "STOP! I WANT DOWN!", her voice sounded very shrill to her own ears, but it was probably just from fright.

"I WANT DOWN N… !", before she could finish her sentence the both dropped towards the ground.

Shins scream got caught in her throat as she plunged towards a certain death.

But she didn't die. Neither of them did. Before they reached the forest floor, the stranger caught the back of her shirt and bounced between the tree-trunks, slowing their descent.

Finally on the ground Shin dropped to her knees with a shaky breath of relief. Thank Zeus she was going to live to see another day! The person next to her didn't move. She looked up. Her strange rescuer just sat there, crouched like a cat, and watched her. Or at least she thought he did, but since he had a soft cylindrical-shaped hat pulled down over his eyes and a high collar to cover the rest of his face, she couldn't tell.

Just as Shin was about to feel really creeped out, he turned his head in the direction they had come. She wondered what he was looking at and tried to distinguish anything out of the ordinary. (except for everything weird that she knew shouldn't be inside her closet but still seemed normal enough, that is) She couldn't see anything, but after a minute of silence she heard the yells from rapidly approaching people.

_Gah! O no! They must be__ after Itachi and Kisame!_

Deciding she did not want to stay and find out if the persuers would believe her theory on them being only figmants of her imagination, Shin turned and set of in the opposite direction of the approaching enemy. Her mysterious saviour was soon running along side her. Shin didn't want to be carried through the trees anymore but understood that at this rate it wouldn't be long before they were seen. That's when she spotted the tree with the large roots and begged the higher powers to please not let them catch her. She even went so far as to promise she would walk straight up to the door of the principal's home and apologize the second she stepped out of her closet.

_Damn you Aslan!_

Shin had gasped when she heard the whooshing sound of the first pursuer passing their hiding place. When the next one bounced of the root concealing them she held her breath, and when the rest of them had finally passed she was ready to faint from lack of oxygen.

They had all been wearing deep-red masks covering the upper half of their faces. Shin hadn't really been able to tell for sure, but she thought that she hadn't seen any holes for the eyes.

She let out the breath she had been holding in.

_I've never seen that kind of ninja before. I wonder what their specialty is?_

…

_Geh! What am I thinking?! Of course they're not ninjas! That's impossible! Ninjas do__n't exist! Not nowadays anyway! And even when they did exist I don't think the looked like that! _

Shin slapped herself to clear her head and accidentally sent mud flying in the direction of her new companion. She ceased her moving and glanced at the dark form beside her. He didn't move. Gaze probably fastened on her he sat crouched just like before. And just like before, he reminded her of a fine limbed feline. All that was missing was a tail.

Shin stared at him, waiting for the guy to do something. The silence, his completely still posture and the fact that she was unable to see any trace of his facial features was very unnerving.

"So…", Shin began warily, trying to distinguish his eyes in the dark slit between the drooping black cap and his equally black collar which was connected to what looked like a robe, and the robe was also (can you guess?) black. It reminded her of the Akatsuki coat.

_I __really hope I haven't attracted some secret assasin of theirs_, Shin thought, before shaking her head and reminding herself that the Akatsuki didn't exist.

"Who are you?", she asked, expecting him to, be annoyed by her ungrateful attitude, answer the question, or at least blink. (Not that she would have known if he did. Blink, that is)

But instead he did nothing.

"What do you want?", Shin asked, a bit more demanding this time.

The figure didn't respond.

"Why are you here?", irritation was beginning to show in her voice, "Why did you save me? Are you a ninja?"

Still no answer.

Shin was getting annoyed. Obviously he wasn't going to hurt her so the assasin-theory, however unlikly in the first place, could be ruled out, and he didn't look like he was about to act the part of the knight in shining armor either. He was more like an animal looking at its master than a heroic human that had just saved her life. Maybe he didn't understand?

"What's your name?", Shin asked, exaggerating every syllable.

She waited for a reply but didn't get any.

"Como te llamas? Tu t'appelles comment? O namae wa?", she fired off in hope that one of the languages would suit him.

They didn't.

"Fine", she muttered and hugged her bare knees, "Don't talk then"

Shin turned her face towards the puddles outside their shelter. The rain didn't look like it was going to stop anytime soon. If anything it looked like it had gotten worse. She shuddered.

_I wish I hadn't changed to pyjamas before I went into the closet. Why couldn't I have kept my jeans on?_

If she was able to create such a realitsic scenario with her puny imagination, why couldn't her subcontious at least have the coutesy to get her a warmer outfit. Or at least better weather.

_I'll die from pneumonia before I get back. _If_ I get back, that is. I should have just left those stupid seals alone…_

"THE SEALS!", Shin sat up straight with a spark of hope in her chest, "It has to be a jutsu! And it brought me here, then it can bring me back!"

She shot out into the rain, but stopped herself when she realised she'd left the dark figure behind.

_I wonder if I should bring him along?,_ she turned to look back a the hideout and almost jumped out of her skin when she found the man standing an inch away from her.

She hadn't even heard him move. Calming her racing heart she had to restrain herself from punching him. Shin did _not_ like it when people snuck up on her.

O.o.O.o.O.o.O

* * *

O.o.O.o.O.o.O

**A/N:**

Not much to say really. Lazyness is taking over...can't...write...any...more.

**NEXT CHAPTER:** The intrigues of Shinobi-world!

O.o.O.o.O.o.O


	4. Intrigues of the Shinobi World

**Chapter four**: Intrigues of the Shinobi-world

Shin was making very little progress, if any at all. Her legs felt shorter than usual and she was wet and hungry. The forest seemed endless and she wasn't entirely sure about the way back to wherever she had first arrived. Her companion 'mr chatty' wasn't being of much use either. Shin had discovered that he was extraordinarily tall. When he stood up he seemed to be at least twice her height and because of this he wouldn't have to take more than one stride every time Shin took three. Except he didn't…stride

The man (if he really was a man. Shin was having her doubts about this) crawled gracefully beside her, but the point was that he was doing it with seemingly no effort at all while Shin was getting very tired, and also very cranky. She felt a lot like jumping up and down while whining loudly and wailing incoherent complaints. But she suppressed this strange urge to act like a two year old and continued onwards.

_Must be a delayed effect from the shock_.

Shin stopped. The black figure followed her example. She looked around. She turned a full circle and then realised that now she had absolutely no idea where they were heading and nor did she know where they had come from.

The urge to cry like a baby was becoming very hard to ignore. Shin did her best and turned sourly to her shadow.

"You wouldn't know where that clearing is, do you?"

Silence.

"I guess not"

A picture of the nins' scattered bodies flew through her mind when she recalled the miniscule battlefield. She was startled out of her thoughts by the figure that had jumped up into a tree and was looking at her over his shoulder.

"Where are you going?", she asked.

Once again, silence.

"Do you want me to come with? Cause I can't climb that high. You'd have to carry me, and I don't waaaAAAAAAAAH!!!"

She was yet again being swooped of through the air under the guy's (she was pretty sure that whatever he was, he was male since he was so tall) arm, just like you would a... goose. (…or something. I'm at a loss here people!)

When she finally got to put her feet… and hands, and knees on solid ground, they were back in the bush from where she had watched the fighting. Shin sent her friend a glare. If he had known all along he should have said something.

There were more people in the clearing now. They looked like ordinary villagers, mostly men but a few strong looking women as well. To the looks of things they were tending to the wounded and moving them away, towards what appeared to Shin like a shrine. Quickly and quietly she snuck away and motioned for her friend to follow.

She saw the puddle in which her face had landed earlier. It was much bigger now and very muddy. Unfortunately there was no sign of anything anywhere. Well anything besides the usual stuff you find in a forest. You know, trees, grass, leaves, maybe a squirrel. Shin didn't see any squirrels though (probably too wet) and neither did she see any old family heirlooms that could magically transport her back to her closet in the real world.

"What did I do to deserve this?", she asked the treetops, kneeling in the muddy puddle (he he… muddy puddle) where she had been searching.

"Great Odin, if this is because of the cards and the money I swear I'll sacrifice it all on an alter together with a white little lamb if you just bring me back!", she pleaded.

There was no answer. The all mighty was being just as communicative as her companion.

She was about to call out to the higher powers once again (thinking that the trees were blocking the signal) when she stopped herself.

_What am I doing? I must be losing it. _

Here she was. In the middle of the shinobi-world and she was asking to go back?! To school?!

She stood up, filled with new energy. _First things first_, she thought,_ I need to get something to eat…and some shoes._

The water almost reached up to her knees. She looked down and noticed that her legs didn't only feel shorter, they _looked_ shorter too. Shorter and scrawnier. A shout from one of the injured made her look up.

"If there are villagers here then there must be a village somewhere close by", Shin pondered intelligently and crept back to the bushes, "Village equals food and shelter"

The villagers looked like they were about done and only a few lingered behind, collecting the remaining weapons before they headed towards the shrine. Shin noticed however, that they didn't enter it as she first had thought. They went around it on a, from Shin's point of view, barely visible path.

"Food wouldn't sit to bad with me", she said with a grin and turned to her friend, she was suddenly in a much chearier mood and to make things even better, the sky was clearing, "How about you?", she asked.

Of course there was no reply, but that didn't dampen Shin's spirits.

"Fine. But I'm starving. You can come along if you want"

When they reached the settlement the sun was peaking out and Shin's cold, stiff body gratefully soaked up the warmth, even though the wet clothes were doing there best to freeze her to death everytime a breeze came. As they drew closer to the main street (There practically weren't any more streets in the small village) sneaking through the unguarded gate, Shin noticed something very unsettling.

"The buildings are _really _big!", she murmured astonished.

But it didn't end there. The street was filling with people who were setting out their wares for sale, talking to their neighbours or simply getting some vitamin D, and they were all huge. (The people, not the vitamins)

Shin walked up to a barrel that was standing at the corner of a house. She guessed that it was meant to catch the water from the rain gutter but couldn't confirm this, as the barrel was taller than her.

"What's going on here?", Shin furrowed her brow and continued down the street.

She also saw that compared to these people her dark shadow wasn't as intimidating as she had thought. He looked to be just about half a head shorter than the average adult.

_Why is everything so big all of a sudden? _Her question was more or less answered when an angry man came steaming towards the table of bread she was eyeing.

"Oi, kid! Stay away from there! Does your mom and dad know you're out stealing from honest workers, huh? No, didn't think so. Now get your filthy little hands away from my bread or I'll give you a good whopping"

Shin just gawked at the man. Firstly because she couldn't grasp this very unfamiliar attitude aimed her way but also because some of the words he used sounded so strange. His entire way of talking was foreign, but at the same time she thought she'd heard that kind of speech before.

"I'm not stealing!", she exclaimed in surprise, "And I'm not a kid!"

"Ne? Not a kid? Has the legal drinking age dropped to four? Bwahaha!", the baker laughed hard at his own joke.

"I'm not four!", Shin protested indignantly.

"Oh, I'm sorry. Four and a half, now get, before you scare of the customers", the man turned around walking into the store again, leaving a seething Shin behind.

She grabbed two loafs of bread and walked away slowly the way she'd come so as not to look too suspicious, but it wasn't an easy feat since her new companion had decided to come with her and his crawling form should attract more than enough unwanted attention. It had only been sheer luck that the shopkeeper hadn't looked his way. Somehow people seemed to let their gaze pass over him without really seeing.

Shin hurried of to a little alley where she had intended to sneak in and eat her meal in private but just as she was about to turn the corner, a voice was heard from the other side of the bend and she halted.

"…Akatsuki again. It's the second one, which means there's only two left now"

The voice was hushed and nervous, Shin leaned her back against the wall, listening intently.

Were they talking about what had happened earlier? Probably, but why where they discussing it in a dirty back alley?

"We should go straight to Konohagakure and offer our services. There's nothing more we can do. This is out of ou...", the nervous person continued but was interrupted by a raspy, yet soft sounding voice.

To Shin it sounded like a young woman with a half broken voice box or suffering from chronic soar throat.

"It is still our duty to see to it that the black scrolls do not fall into the wrong hands. Now that the Akatsuki has half of them we no longer have a choice. We must keep the Uchiha from calling forth the monster at any and all costs. If we fail to protect the scrolls there is only one solution."

"N..nani?! Roujo-sama, the third himself said that…"

"I know what the third said, Sato", the young womans voice was still soft but it had an edge to it that tolerated no contradictions, "The Hokage repeated it when the first scroll was taken a few days ago. But our loyalty lies not with the Hokage in this matter"

The one called Sato let a small gasp escape his mouth.

Shin was munching on her stolen food and was all ears. Obviously something was going on here. Something big. _Maybe even something to do with Naruto_, she thought at hearing them mention the monster.

"We are to do our duty and prevent the demon from answering his call"

"Y..you mean…?"

"Kill it", the young woman replied coldly and with poorly hidden malice.

Shin froze to the spot. _Kill it? Kill who? Naruto? They can't do that! I have to stop them! 'Yeah, right. You and what army? They're ninjas, remember'_, a small voice inside her head reminded her.

_So?_, she thought, _I could beat them…Okay maybe not, I really don't feel like dying just yet. New plan…um…I could trick them or something or maybe I could get those important scrolls back. Yes, that is a great idea, just walk up to the homicidal, clan killing, s-class nin and ask him to give it back. If I say please he might even tie a bow around them. Not a good plan. But I have to do _something

An angry outburst not too far away made her snap back to reality. (…or…nya, you know what I mean) The baker was fuming like and old-fashioned locomotive and heading straight for her.

"Maybe I'll just warn him…", she mumbled before setting of at top speed in the opposite direction.

Running past the alley she got a quick glimpse of the conspirators and got her suspicions about one being a young woman confirmed when she saw the elaborate redish kimono. Both turned their masked faces towards the street when she rushed past. It was the same kind of masks she'd seen before on the nins in the forest.

_How can they see through those?_, she wondered as she kept on running.

Realising that the baker would catch up with her before she could reach the gates and freedom Shin glanced at her companion. She wasn't too happy about what she had to do.

"Hey!", she panted gaining his attention, _I really got to find out his name_, "Pick me up!"

Within less than seconds they were in the air, and Shin (to her dismay) once again had his arm wrapped around her middle and was looking back at the street they were leaving behind.

_This kind of travelling better not be turning into a habit_, she thought and tried to grab on as tightly as possible.

Before vanishing into the trees she caught a quick glimpse of the two masked figures watching their departure from a roof.

"Roujo-sama…that looked a lot like…"

"Yes, it did", Roujo Daichi broke of the friend's sentence and followed the disappearing forms with her gaze, "Gather the others, we still have some things to discuss"

* * *

**A/N: **Hm...I haven't edited this chapet since I wrote it several months ago and it is also written in wordpad (Which I hate!) So if there is any funny spelling or something that doesn't seem right, please tell me and I'll fix it once I have Word again. 

I would really like it if those of you who read this little fic of mine would let me know. You don't have to review if you don't want to. I'm just curious : )

Ja matte neh!


	5. Chapter five and six

**

* * *

**

**Chapter ****five:** Doing what we can

"How about Shadow? No, too corny... Maybe Dark? Like the manga! Or Spiderman…", Shin looked over at her quiet travel company, "Cheery O'Deary?", she questioned, getting a bit bothered by the constant silence.

She didn't have a big craving for attention, no more than the average person anyway, but when people were being this unsociable it made her unsettled and fidgety.

"I should just call you John Smith, you're so colourless", she tapped her chin in thought, "But it doesn't really suite your personality, I think. Never mind", Shin shrugged, "I guess I've got a while to think about it. The woman we met before said it's a day's march to Konoha"

She glanced at the crawling person beside her to see if he had any objections. He didn't.

_I really wish he could find some other way of moving. This is __looking _way_ too suspicious. We might not even get through the gate... And if we're going to see Naruto that _would_ be a big plus_.

_Hang on! I can't go see Naruto! He'll think I'm crazy if I burst into his apartment yelling about the Akatsuki, Demons and deceitful conspiring ninjas. What if he doesn't even have a clue about the kyuubi yet? Then the Hokage will be really angry if I tell him. Hm…what episode is this anyway? I hope Tsunade hasn't become Hokage already. Then I'd be in for it if I told him. Please Buddha, don't let it be Tsunade!_,

Shin sent the, once again cloudy, skies a pleading look.

_On the other hand__, if I go straight to the Hokage no one would get mad... But I'd still rather face the Third any day than meat that scary woman... When _does_ Naruto find out anyway?_

Shin had, up until realising that she wasn't in a dream, thought that Tsunade was a really cool character, but the thought of meeting her in real life didn't feel quite as good as she used to imagine it would.

_And even if it _is_ the Third, there's no saying he would believe me now that I look like this_, she looked down and wondered why she hadn't noticed earlier that the ground had come much closer and her clothes were almost falling of her, after the whole waking-up-in-a-wet-forest-full-of-bloodthirsty-ninjas incident. _Who'd believe a kid? Kids are so full of it. I know I wouldn't believe me, especially not with a shady companion like him_, she gave her shadow another glance and then abruptly stopped in her tracks with resolute expression.

"We'll do what we can!", she declared turning to him and then understanding why she had thought her voice to be so high before.

Small vocal cords don't make for a very low pitch. Ignoring this thought, she cracked her knuckles and gave the squatting shadow a determined look that most intelligent creatures would shy away from.

An hour later Shin was ready to tear her hair out. They hadn't gotten very far on the dirt road leading to the Hidden Leaf and the walking training Shin had begun with her follower, hadn't progressed a lot either. No matter how she explained it she couldn't get the guy to walk up right. She got him to stand up straight by telling him to copy her and then he had done that. _Exactly_ that. Arms crossed, weight on one leg and probably the same frustrated expression.(even if she couldn't see it) But when she told him to stop it, he sat back down.

"No, I want you to do it on your own", she explained irritated, "Don't copy me. Just stand up"

He didn't move a muscle. Not even a tilt of the head to indicate he didn't understand.

"Ugh! Stand up! Stand straight like a human. Like… like Itachi!",she blurted out, as a mental image of the first person she could think of flashed through her mind.

She shivered and turned back to her student. But he was gone. Instead there was the missing nin from the Leaf standing in front of her and Shin's guts turned to ice. He had the same cold and indifferent pose with an air of danger around him, but she was only fooled for a second until she noticed the beanie-construction pulled down over his eyes and then she recognised the rest of him as well.

She eyed him curiously.

"Are you some kind of mind reader?", she asked, but got no other answer than him turning his supposed face towards her.

There was something strange about the way he looked at her. You know the feeling you get when you're being watched? It was completely absent. He might as well not have been there at all, much less looking Shin in the face. That's how little he affected his surroundings. No wonder the villagers looked passed him. Then a thought hit her.

"Hm…", she took a few steps backwards, watching him closely. Ready to stop him if he sat down again.

"Can you walk towards me?", she asked him.

No response.

She tried rephrasing it.

"Walk towards me, like Itachi"

Again, nothing happened.

"Walk over here…like Itachi", she pictured the Uchiha walking towards her and as if he had seen that image, her friend took a few indifferent strides and stopped in front of her.

"Good…", she praised cautiously so as not to break whatever was making this work the way she wanted it to, "Now I want you to continue moving like that", she turned the way they were headed and began walking slowly.

Not a second after she had turned he closed up behind her, walking upright. She could only tell by the way his bleak shadow fell over the ground, for his footfalls were soundless. But he _was_ walking normally, if maybe looking a bit intimidating.

In her mind Shin did a little victory dance and high-fived herself for being a master genius.

**Chapter ****six:** Stalkers in the woods

They kept this up for the remainder of the day. Shin trudging on as fast as her undersized legs would let her without tripping, and her silent Itachi-look-alike always one step behind as if attached by a string. The sun set and it became cold. Thanks to the walking Shin was able to keep a fairly good body temperature but when they stopped for a brake and some bread the chilliness of the night began to claim her limbs. She had also noticed that she wasn't receiving her companion's undivided attention like before.

"What are you looking for?", she asked, knowing he wouldn't answer.

They had sat down in the grass by the side of the road, a bit hesitantly from Shin's side since she didn't know if she could get him to stand again. Now she was munching away on her last loaf of bread which she had offered to share, but her friend had neither accepted nor declined her offer so his half was untouched.

"Is there something out there?", Shin turned to look the way he was facing, not seeing anything she glanced back at him.

_How c__an he see anything with that cap?_, she pondered this for a few seconds and came to a conclusion, _He must be listening! _

Shin strained her ears to pick up anything else besides the usual noises of the night. There were crickets chirping in the higher grass and a few nocturnal birds out hunting, if she listened carefully she could even hear the light padding from some small beast in search of prey.

Not yet understanding what was distracting her cohort, she closed her eyes and concentrated. Mosquitoes, scurrying mice, the quick flapping of what probably was bat wings. There was also something else in the background. Something immense but at the same time easily overlooked for it fitted so well in with the rest of the sounds. Shin was captivated. What was that? It felt like she was surrounded by its presence and that if she listened hard enough she would be able to understand the eerie whispers it was transmitting. And that's when she heard it. It was so soft that she nearly missed it. A faint whooshing. The sound of air entering a narrow path and then exiting the same way. Air pipes.

Breathing!

Her eyes flew open, expecting to look straight into the eyes of the owner of the lungs but seeing only her companion not listening anymore but looking at her.

_Was that what he had heard?__ He must have some amazing hearing._

Looking around Shin could see no one, but now she knew there was somebody there. Somebody who didn't want to be seen.

_We're being followed!__ Maybe it's some kind of thief or a murderer, or worse; a pervert!_

Not to say that Shin had something against perverts. She didn't. Many of her closest friends were perverts. No, she just disliked potential child molesters. Especially when she was the molestable child in question.

She stood up and looked around once again. Unasked, her companion stood up closely behind her.

"_Hshhh…_", she shushed him unnecessarily.

_Hm…__that sound fits him pretty good. Have to remember that._

Backing up on the road again, cautiously glancing around in every direction, Shin was preparing herself mentally for any kind of attack. None came, but now she had a distinct feeling they were being watched. The sensation in her neck and stomach was telling her that.

_I'm such a coward_, she scolded herself before spinning around and breaking into a run.

Up on a branch a pair of black worn eyes saw the dark figure on the ground wait a second longer before turning away from him and leaping after the young child. The owner of the eyes kept his content from showing on his face as another man landed next to him.

"They saw you, Itachi-san"

"No. It heard me"

"It?", Kisame turned to his partner, "You mean the child or the shadow?"

"Both", the Uchiha replied with his usual flat tone.

"So you are confident that _that_ is what we are after?"

Itachi closed his eyes.

"We wait", he said, not answering the question straight out, "There might be no need for the third scroll"

"What about the fourth?"

The Sharingan bearer looked up the way the two had disappeared.

"They're headed straight for it", he turned his back to the road and then shot his partner a cold glance, "Like I said, Kisame-san, we wait", and he vanished into the forest.

Kisame sighed at his young partner's attitude problem and sent one last look down the road before following his example.

* * *

A/N: I added two chapters this time since I thought they were two short. As you can see, I'm sort of getting tangled up in my own plot line. Too many questions and mysteries and not enough answers. Mind you, I _do_ have answers. Everything that happens in a well written story happens for a reason. And the reason that I haven't updated in a while is that I've just bought myself a laptop, and being the technically incompetent person that I am, it has taken me a while to understand it. But me and my laptop have now bonded while smoking a peace pipe, so following updates will probably not take this long.

Yeah...I'm kinda babbling today...or maybe I should say tonight as it's two in the morning... Sugerhigh, anyone?

In the next chapter our little heroine (am I spelling that right?) will be reaching her destination and running into some trouble...ehem...I mean, some _more_ trouble, and thus involving a few more ninjas, a certain Academy instructor and more mysterious hints that I'm barely managing to keep track of.

If there is anything unclear or stupid in this fic, please let me know.

Okay then... I'll just keep trippin' on my six-pack coke for another hour...

Ja matta ne!

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	6. Chapter seven and eight

**Chapter ****seven:** Risky business and high walls

Shin slumped against a tree, panting heavily and clutching the front of her shirt in an attempt to sooth her racing heart.

_I have to work out more often. If I'm going to be stuck in a world full of dangerous people with super abilities I gott__a' learn how to run._

"Hey…pant pant…Hush!", the dark form turned towards her, "I knew It would fit!", she grinned, "From now on.. pant ..I'll be calling you Hush ..pant pant.., okay?"

Silence.

"That means I want you to respond to that, understand? If you're not okay with it tell me so now"

More silence.

"Good!", she leaned back against the tree with a sigh, "We must have lost them by now. Go like this if you can't hear them anymore", Shin did the good-guy-pose (sitting..), thumb up and all, and gave him another toothy grin.

Hush didn't move for a few seconds. He didn't seem like he was going to respond, and then he suddenly thrust his thumb in Shins face.

The gesture was so out of place for the mysterious guy that she, after staring at his finger (the thumb doesn't count as a finger, does it?) in surprise, gave a snort and began snickering. The snicker turned in to a chuckle and rapidly evolved into an out of control laughing fit, making the girl bend over and grab her stomach. She couldn't help herself. It was like someone had pushed a button and released all the tension that had been building up inside her.

It was all so funny.

She was almost impaled and _killed_. By a _kunai_ no less, which had been thrown by a member of the _AKATSUKI_, which everyone _knows_ is only a fictional gang of murderous criminals in a comic book. And she had stole for the first time (not counting the times she had ripped people of in poker games) and gotten chased out of the village after overhearing a very secret conversation between two uproarious ninjas.

She'd been carried off, four hundred feet above the ground (someone's exaggerating…) by a very untalkative guy with hearing like a dog and moves like catwoman. Not to mention he can read minds. Who WOULDN'T find all this hilarious?

_I guess this is what __they mean by 'hysterical'_, Shin thought and giggled like a maniac, tears streaming down her cheeks like they were Niagara Falls.

The giggles subsided to sobs and Shin bit down hard on her lower lip to prevent a crying fit from taking over were the laughter had left of. Sniffling she wiped her face on her arm and stood up.

"We can't be far away now", she said in a thick voice turning to Hush, "After running all that way we should be pretty close"

Shin cleared her throat trying to put on a dignified face.

"Well", she said, "We can't sit around here all night. Come on!"

The pace had gradually gotten slower and slower. Shin was beginning to have some trouble keeping her eyes open. Or more like, a lot of trouble. She had to slap herself to keep from falling asleep on the road. She knew that Hush could carry her if she wanted to, but she didn't. It wasn't that she didn't trust him. Strangely enough she did. Even if she had only met him that morning (or whatever time of day it had been when the miniature battle had taken place) he gave her an odd homey feeling that she couldn't even begin to explain where it was coming from. Like putting on that pair of jeans that are so full of holes that they're barely holding together but they're so comfortable and you've had them for so long that you can't throw them out.

It was just that she didn't think she could rely on him not to do anything stupid if she wasn't awake to keep an eye on him, like walk straight up to the gates of Konoha without a plan.

Shin tripped over what could have been her other foot, and landed on her face.

"Oh.. 'e goun' iso oft...", she mumbled with pebbles pressing against her already sore (from all the hitting) cheek.

She was about to drop into the land of dreams with a silly smile on her face when a chuckle broke through the puffy pink cloud that was her brain.

Her eyes flew wide open.

_It's that person who was stalking us__! He's come to finish us off! Oh no! I haven't warned the Hokage yet! I'm never going to get to see the last Pirates of the Caribbean movie!_

Shin willed her exhausted body up to her knees and managed to conclude that there was no unwelcome killer around. (Not that killers usually are welcome..)

But where had the chuckle come from then? Blinking a little to clear her vision that was becoming fuzzy again, she saw that the road made a sharp turn only a few paces from the spot where she sat.

Shin crawled over to the bend, and peaked out from behind a tree.

(Yes, I know there are a lot of trees in this story. It's not my fault! They live in the Village Hidden in the LEAVES! Blame Kishimoto-sama)

Her road seemed to unite with a larger one and immediately to her right she saw the huge walls that normally surrounded the villages of this country. And at the half-open gate stood two guards that she knew she had seen before.

_So this really is Konoha then_, she thought and realised that she hadn't actually believed they'd get there.

Well who could blame her? The place isn't supposed to exist.

The chuckle had apparently come from Kotetsu, whom she easily recognised on the spiky hair and the strip of bandage running across the bridge of his nose. He was listening to something that his friend Izumo was saying and it was probably funny since he soon smirked and gave another chuckle.

Shin remembered that these two appeared to be practically inseparable in the anime. But she wasn't positive that the obviously so funny guy, _was_ Izumo. She had always mixed him up with a bunch of other people. Although this guy did have his hair covering one of his eyes the way he was supposed to.

_Now what?__ Walking up to them will probably just get me into a lot of trouble. They'll want to know where I'm from and what I want in Konoha. And I can't imagine what they're going to make of Hush. Maybe we could pretend we're going to see a relative. That's a pretty innocent lie. They might just buy it._

Shin glanced over her shoulder at the ominous figure that was Hush, and then down at her dirty and torn shorts.

_T__hen again, maybe not…_, she sat down properly_, I need to get inside before I fall asleep. If I do that out here in the cold I'll probably never wake up again. Dammit! I can't feel my feet anymore!_

She tried to wiggle her toes but failed.

_Great! I'll probably have to amputate those. But it isn't that cold__... Maybe I could just take quick nap to get some energy. The sun is just about to rise anyhow so maybe just a little_…slap

Shin's cheek throbbed from the hundredth slap she had given herself that night. She shook her head fiercely.

_What am I thinking? I'm not sleeping here__! Get up stupid body! Move it! We're going to see the Hokage…and perhaps a warm blanket._

Her body protested to the vile abuse it was being put through, but Shin did her best to block out the weird feeling of numbness in her bare feet and pushed herself up. Waving Hush over, she slipped as gracefully and quietly she could (meaning not very gracefully at all) into the thick greenery and advanced towards the big wall.

_If this doesn't work I don't care if I freeze to death, I _will_ lie down on the spot and sleep... That is if I'm not already dead, then it won't be a problem…_

_Why am I doing this again?_

She stared up at the gigantic wooden mass before her and then at the equally high oak behind her. It was the largest tree she ever saw (counting every plant in the forest).

_This is never going to work,_ she thought and climbed onto Hush's back.

"_Just to the first branch. Got it?",_ she whispered so that Kotetsu and the guy who probably was Izumo wouldn't hear them.

Hush didn't answer. Instead he shot of like a cannonball, leaving only a few fluttering leaves behind, and also, Shin believed, her stomach. They landed on the lowest branch like she had said. The lowest branch was one of the highest branches she could ever remember being on and even if she didn't have a problem with heights normally, she felt a spell of dizziness come over her when she looked down to see the somewhat smaller forms of the guards below. On the plus side, her adrenalin had finally kicked in and Shin felt like she could have run a marathon. However, her mission was not to light the Olympic fire, but to get to the next branch above her head and then on to the next one and the next one until she could climb out on that long one way up there and slip over the wall.

But slipping over a twenty-story high wall into a village which main population was trained ninjas wasn't the easiest, or the smartest thing to do for that matter. The first few stages of the plan went smoothly enough. Some bruises here and a few cuts there but she was still in one piece and even if it felt like it, her toes hadn't fallen of yet. But after a couple of minutes her arms were aching and her movements were becoming sluggish.

Several times she was forced to sit absolutely still in case the guards had heard that twig hit her in the face or that muffled sneeze from tiny pieces of bark she was breathing in. Shin was actually surprised that they hadn't noticed her yet. Weren't ninjas supposed to have super hearing or be able to sense people and stuff like that. Not that she was complaining. She was merely a few feet away from the wall that Hush had perched himself on waiting for her. All she had to do was slide out a little further and she would be able to reach it. She could of course had asked him to carry her there, but that was out of the question. Climbing around like this, high above the safe ground was scary enough doing it yourself, letting someone else jump about with you hanging over their shoulder was far worse.

_Just a little bit further__…, _Shin pulled herself forward slowly, wrapping her legs around the stem, _One more and I can probably reach…_

(We all know that when you think you _probably_ can do something it always ends in disaster)

-Creeeeeak!-

_What was that?_ Shin felt her body break out in cold sweat and stopped with her hand midair,_ Please don't let it…_

-CRACK!-

**Chapter ****eight:** Saved by the sensei

The branch she was currently trying to reach the end of, suddenly snapped somewhere very close behind her. Holding on for dear life to the piece of wood that was about to come crashing violently to the ground wasn't the brightest thing to do. Shin did it anyway, but not for very long. A sharp object slashed the lower area of her back before getting caught in her shirt, resulting in the heavy branch getting ripped from her arms by gravity and almost strangling her in the process.

Hanging where she was, showing her abdomen to the world, Shin could both see and hear the crashes when her makeshift bridge collided with every little twig on the big oak and creating a very big and very noisy mess. She winced at every crack and snap.

_Tell me that they're both deaf and dumb and didn't__ notice that_, she prayed and tried not to squirm when she slid a little bit further down her shirt.

"Oi! Izumo! I found something!"

She understood that her prayers had been in vain when she looked up to see the spiky haired patrolman standing on what was left of the branch she was hanging from. But on the bright side she now knew that it indeed _was_ Izumo and not some other character.

"So did I!", the other hollered back and Shin shifted her head to see him standing beside Hush on the top of the wall.

"Dammit!", she muttered.

If they were going to catch them, couldn't they have done it _before_ she had climbed all this way?

Kotetsu was looking over at his friend with his signature half smile on his face.

"This one's just a kid", he informed, "Looks like they were trying to climb over"

"We'll just bring them in and let the day watch deal with it", Izumo replied.

"Sounds good to me"

Shin heard the 'just a kid' remark and felt her eye twitch. Like it wasn't bad enough she was caught in this unworthy position, they just had to remind her she was trapped in the body of a four year old. She drew energy from the small source of anger and yelled across the gap as Izumo was about to tie the unresisting figure's hands behind his back.

"Hush! Move!"

He took one step to the left, making Izumo's ropes close on nothing. Shin smirked when the nin almost fell on his face. Hush had obviously understood what Shin wanted him to do and kept on avoiding the ropes.

"Jump!", Shin shouted when the guard created a clone on his other side in an attempt to corner him.

She realised she shouldn't opened her mouth when the movement made her shirt slide of the limb it had been caught on and she plunged downward. Fortunately or not so fortunately, depending on how you look at it, there was another wooden arm sticking out beneath her and Shin made a spectacular belly flop and grazed her cheek for a second time(the first time being when she stood on her face earlier). She supposed it was a real mess by now and groaned as she felt a major headache coming on.

A moment later she was dangling from her shirt again but this time it was caught by Kotetsu who was watching the struggle on the wall.

"He listens to you, ne?", he asked, "Tell him to stop resisting or it will be the worse for both of you"

Shin was about to protest but then changed her mind. They would never be allowed to see the Hokage if they got into a real fight with the patrolmen. Besides it looked like her comrade had suddenly run out of energy just like her, he couldn't keep going much longer. With a sigh of reluctant resignation she did as she was told.

"Hush! Get down here!"

In the blink of an eye he landed with soundless pounce in front of them, almost making Kotetsu flinch. Almost.

Izumo wasn't far after and soon Shin found herself being carried over Kotestu's shoulder. The ropes held her arms pinned to her sides which made for very little balance or comfort. Her hands had apparently been too small for the thick rope so they had tied it around her body instead. She had a good view of Hush who on the other hand only had his wrists back tied. He was walking in-between the two guards looking no different from when they had been walking through the forest, except maybe a bit tired. His movements were just as fluent as before but slower and more sluggish. Shin wondered if it had anything to do with the fact that he didn't eat and got a little worried.

"Hey! I think he needs a rest. We have to stop", she told the other two.

"He looks fine to me", Kotetsu replied.

"You're not even looking", Shin grumbled at the man.

"You can both rest when we get to the police station", Izumo told her.

Shin was about to leave it at that when she remembered why she had come in the first place.

"I need to see the Hokage!", she exclaimed.

Izumo merely quirked his eyebrow at this and Kotetsu looked over his shoulder.

"The Fifth has better things to do than deal with little kids", he said.

_The Fifth? The Fifth, the Fifth… Who was the Fifth_

"Great, it's Tsunade", Shin muttered and then spoke up again, "So where are we going then?"

She was going to have to think of a plan to get to the Hokage's place. It wasn't going to be easy business sneaking out of a ninja prison.

"_We_ are going home. _You_ are going to a nice little cell at the station", Kotetsu answered, "And do you know what they do to naughty children there?", Shin could hear the teasing smile in his voice, "They lock them in the dungeon with all the monsters until they promise to behave"

He was obviously trying to scare her. But since Shin wasn't as small as they believed she was, it didn't work the way Kotetsu had intended it to.

The mentioning of the dungeon however, got her thinking about what they supposedly are used for and she remembered a certain commander of the ANBU Torture and Interrogation Force. They were going to question her about why she was trying to climb over the wall and even if they believed that she had only come to warn them, they would want to know why she didn't use the gate if her intentions were that good. What was she supposed to answer to that? She couldn't very well start blabbering about parallel universes and other dimensions. They were either going to lock her up or make her talk. Neither of the options sounded very compelling. The question was if she had any strength left to do anything about it.

(If Shin had had any rest at all, she probably would have figured that a calm approach was the best solution. As it was, she hadn't and she didn't. So Shin's mind was realing with not so disirable images of interogation methods)

Kotetsu who thought that he had frightened the kid a little too much, shrugged his shoulder to liven the brat up a bit, making Shin bounce uncomfortably. That was a mistake on his part. She hissed irritably at the undignified treatment and then sunk her right knee forcibly into his solar plexus. Caught by surprise, the guard never managed to block and fell forward gasping for air. As soon as her feet touched the ground, Shin was running for her life. She had no plan whatsoever, but if she had had one, it would not include being interrogated by the sadistic Morino Ibiki. (Remember the big dude with all the scars? The guy who was holding the first part of the chuunin exams? That's Morino Ibiki. The rumour says he really is somewhat of a sadist)

"Come on, Hush!", she shouted and turned a corner hoping to find a hiding place or an escape route.

She could hear the two gatekeepers cursing under their breath and turned to look over her shoulder if she was being pursued or if her friend managed to break free. It was hard running with your arms tied to your body, Shin noticed. But whether you can run tied up or not doesn't matter if you're not watching where you are going. When Shin finally turned her head in the right direction it was too late to stop. She tried to slam the breaks but ran straight into the person walking down the middle of the street and was knocked to the ground.

"Oof!", she sat down flat on her butt and had a second to wish that she had her hands free to soften the fall before she heard the sound of the guards' footsteps.

_Oh shit__, they're going to catch me! I can't run like this!_

Turning her face up towards the person she had collided with she got an idea. Or maybe it was more like honest begging than a conscious thought.

"Don't let them take me, I don't wanna' see Ibiki!", Shin had meant to give the Konoha citizen the poor-little-puppy look, but instead she ended up squeezing her eyes shut and pleading in desperation.

It didn't sound at all cute and it was definitely not what she had planned. The small body must be getting to her.

"Who is going to take you?", a puzzled and very familiar voice asked.

She opened her eyes in surprise and forgot all about biting her lip, which she had been doing to keep in the tears, that for some unfathomable reason were threatening to spill over.

"Iruka?", she blurted without thinking.

* * *

A/N: A thousand apoligies my friends. My computer kept claiming that I was trying to upload an empty document, which I was NOT! I also apologies about making this end a cliffie. Sorry!

But here you finally have it! The next part of the story! TA DA!

I hope you enjoyed it and a lot of thank-you's to those who reviewed or simply read it.

Next Chapter: Shin struggles to stay awake for long enough to deliver her warning, someone gets an unexpected task and someone else faints.


	7. Chi?

"Who is going to take you?", a puzzled and very familiar voice asked.

She opened her eyes in surprise and forgot all about biting her lip, which she had been doing to keep in the tears that for some unfathomable reason were threatening to spill over.

"Iruka?", she blurted without thinking.

**Chapter nine:** Chi?

The even more surprised teacher opened his mouth to ask something, but whatever it was, Shin was spared the trouble of answering. Izumo and Kotetsu had turned the corner at the end of the street and were barrelling towards them, Kotetsu still clutching his diaphragm from the blow.

Shin let out a small and involuntary, Eep!, and proceeded to push her back against Iruka's legs in an attempt at getting away from the angry guards. She knew she was going to find all this very humiliating later on but didn't care to think further about it at the time.

"Iruka-sensei", Izumo gave a quick nod of acknowledgment to the man who's feet Shin was currently residing on, "I see you've caught our little fugitive"

"Fugitive?", he asked, not sounding very pleased, "Are you two the reason why the child looks like this?"

_Like this? What does he mean, 'like this'?_, Shin wondered looking up at Iruka's angry face.

"Ah, no... Most of it…", Izumo tried to answer but was broken of by the upset teacher.

"Most of it? So you are saying that you two _did_ have something to do with it?"

"Ano…we didn't do anything. The gaki fell from a tree and…"

"You chased the child of a _tree_?"

"It wasn't our fault, Iruka sensei", Kotetsu tried to defend himself, "We were just escorting them to the prison so…"

"I expected more from you Hagane-san. Children don't go to prison, they go to school. And what is this talk about going to see Morino Ibiki?"

Shin was impressed by Iruka's authority over the older men, albeit they were only one year older, but still.

"I might have joked about the dungeons…", Kotetsu admitted guiltily and rubbed the back of his head not meeting the teacher's accusing look.

"But we never mentioned…", Izumo began protesting, but wasn't allowed to finish.

"Small kids don't have the same sense of humour as some of the older ones", Iruka interrupted and gave the two an angry stare.

According to the two guards, an angry Umino Iruka was nothing to mess with so they both hung their heads in submission.

"I was on my way to the Academy, but I think I'm going follow the two of you to make sure everything is handled the way it should"

"Yes, Iruka-sensei", the guards answered in unison.

Shin almost giggled at the way they scraped their feet in front of the teacher, but stopped herself when Iruka bent down to her level.

"Would you like me to come along with you? I'm sure there must be some kind of mix up", he smiled kindly at her.

For a moment Shin was at a loss for words. He had switched from glaring to nice in a second.

"Hokage!", she piped up, remembering the warning, "I need to see the Hokage!"

"The Hokage?", Iruka looked perplexed, "You want to see Tsunade-sama?"

"Yes!"

_Oh, please let them take me to the Hokage so I can finish this mad quest and get some rest._

Iruka scratched his scar in thought.

"I suppose this matter will have to be dealt with anyway. And it won't be in a dungeon", he shot Kotetsu a dirty look.

"Hang on! There was another one as well!", Izumo exclaimed.

"Another one? Another child?"

"No, Iruka sensei. A man. About this tall", he gestured with his hand somewhere close to his chin.

"I'll call him if you take me to the Hokage", Shin demanded, but shrunk back when Kotetsu bent down to look her in the eye.

"How do we know this isn't some kind of trick to assassinate Tsunade-sama?", he was apparently still mad about the nasty knee.

"I swear! I swear on…on…I'll swear on anything it isn't a trick!"

"He has already left", Iruka intervened, "I can't sense any charka presence out on the streets"

So they were able to sense people after all, but Shin was pretty sure that her dark friend hadn't left. He must be hiding somewhere.

"He's still here", she told them and to prove it she called out, "Hush!"

She had expected him to jump down from a nearby roof or something and the men had assumed something similar, so when he stepped out from a shadow, no less than a foot away, they all jumped. Alright, only Shin jumped. But she was certain that the others had wanted to do the same.

Iruka frowned thoughtfully.

"Let's go", Shin declared, eager to get this over with.

She made an attempt to stand up, but tripped over her feet and fell on her face. How could this day get anymore embarrassing?

A few minutes later Shin was resting her head against Iruka's shoulder and trying her hardest not to doze of. The rocking movement when he walked made it very difficult.

At first they had let her use her own legs but after Shin had stumbled over her clumsy feet for the tenth time Iruka had picked her up against all her objections.

Thankfully he hadn't thrown her over his shoulder like Kotetsu had, but she would have been a lot more comfortable if they had untied her so she could rest her arms around his neck.

(Shin is being carried in a backwards piggyback-ride-way, so she's leaning against his chest looking over his shoulder, with one leg on each side of his waist. Get the picture?)

Not that she wanted to, she would probably have died from humiliation before she did that.

Anyway. Shin felt her head loll to the rhythm of his steps and was fighting hard to keep her eyes open. The adrenalin was leaving her system and her body was beginning to feel heavier and heavier.

_I can't sleep now! I have to warn Tsunade and I can't let them take Hush away. The poor guy can barely think for himself. Who knows what that Kotetsu would do to him._

The sleepiness was beginning to overpower her senses as the warmth from Iruka was spreading over to her frozen body. On the other hand, Hush was a big boyHe could take care of himself. A short nap wouldn't hurt.

She continued to argue with herself mentally like this for as long as possible, but realised that she must have nodded off at some point when somebody gently shook her shoulders.

"Huh…?", she blinked a few times at the bright light.

What was going on?

"We're going up to see the Hokage soon", Iruka told her, "Try to stay awake alright?"

"Iruka-sensei!", a female voice said, "Iruka-sensei, you might want to clean up the little one before going up", a woman about the same age as the teacher was approaching them from across what seemed to be some sort of office slash waiting area.

The room was pretty shabby looking and seemed familiar in the same way that everything else Shin was recognising from the manga.

_She must be a kind of secretary_, Shin thought and eyed the woman who was now smiling.

"I guess you're not very clean, are you?", Iruka said turning to Shin.

She noticed he had put her down on a chair and from there she was clearly able to tell where she had been leaning against him before. There was dirt on the whole front region of his vest and the trail continued up on his shoulder and ended with a red smudge on the side of his neck.

Shin wanted to tell him that he wasn't very clean either, but since that was _her_ fault, she chose not to.

"That's not what I meant, sensei", the woman said, "Don't you know that Hokage-sama is a little over sensitive. You don't want her to faint, do you?"

Was Tsunade sensitive to something? Shin couldn't remember, her brain was stuffed with cotton and marshmallow-dough, leaving little room for anything else.

"Yeah, Iruka-sensei. We'll have to put some band aids on those if we're going in there", Izumo appeared behind the young woman and pointed to Shin's face.

_Put some band aids on what?_, she thought and raised a hand to her cheek and touched something moist.

She looked down at her fingers.

"Blood?", she mumbled.

Yeah, right! Tsunade was sensitive to blood after her boyfriend died a long time ago. What was his name again? Dan something?

"Don't worry, cutie. We'll cover up those nasty scratches", the secretary cooed bending down towards her.

Usually Shin would have resented such a belittling tone, but she could barely stay awake, much less argue with this woman.

The secretary disappeared out the door and Iruka began untying her ropes. As soon as her arms were free, Shin stretched them towards the sky and slumped backwards in her seat and fell asleep. Iruka didn't seem to think this was a good idea and shook her again.

Annoyed, Shin sent him her death glare which didn't do any good at all so she settled for a pout.

"Aw, kawai! Poor thing, you must be exhausted", the secretary was kneeling in front of her with a first aid kit in her lap, "Just sit still now so I can tape this over your cheek, and those cuts don't look too good either"

The secretary was very gentle and didn't do any unnecessary or painful cleaning. She was in fact so gentle that when she was stroking the last piece of tape onto her face, Shin leaned into the touch without thinking.

Kotetsu watched curiously as the kid tilted further out of the chair and promptly fell asleep in the hand of Ito Hanako, making Hanako-san smile even more.

"Oh, somebody must have been through quite a lot. The little thing can't stay awake for a second"

"Well, we can't bring a sleeping child to the Hokage", Iruka replied with a determined look and shook the unconscious form for the third time.

Shin was about ready to throttle anyone who tried to shake her again and sat up straight in her seat, almost head-butting Iruka in the process.

"They say it's alright to go up now", Izumo poked his head through the doorway.

"Finally", Shin grunted and stood up to follow the grownups out but stumbled and made her 20th belly flop of the day.

Her legs weren't obeying her. She tried to stand up again but wobbled and almost fell again.

_Ugh, my feet must have gone numb_ she clenched her teeth.

Kotetsu was waiting for her to exit before coming after with Hush, so she hurried after the other two as fast as she could. Her feet were behaving very oddly. It felt like she was walking on tiny pieces of sharp glass and smooth round rocks at the same time. To add to the misery, her balance was getting worse by the second. Walking up the stairs towards the Hokage's office Shin couldn't bear it anymore so she swallowed her pride and grabbed a hold of Iruka.

_She'd better listen to me after all this_, she grumbled.

* * *

A/N: I've started a new school and have been really busy making friends and moving in... There. That's my excuse. Gomen nasai for not updating sooner, Minnasan!

Next chapter: Sorry...again. I had it wrong the last time. Nobody blacked out in this chapter, don't remember what else I promised, but if there was something more it'll probably happen in the next one. There will be some raising of voices and several people are recieving unwanted tasks.

Ja ne!


	8. NOTE: You!

**NOTE:**

Excuse of the day:

Once more, I'm terribly **sorry** for not updating yet.

I still have a few chapters lying around waiting to be edited. The problem is that they're all on my lap top, which my three year old brother decided to do a tap dance number on. My lap top is now in the lap-top-ER and they've told me that the condition is critical but stable and I'll probably get to take it home next week with the memory intact.

At least that's what I hope.

I want to acknowledge those who have reviewed. You guys are great! Big **cookies** for:

**Demee**

**Sharkteeth**

**Devil-Speaker**

**TheFirstTime**

**FaintlyAlarming**

**Quelara**

**Akuno Hikari**

**Deserter**

**blackgatito**

****

**Deserter**, Thanks for your detailed review. I just read it and it's fun to see that you're curious : ) There is a good reason for Shin being a little child. I mean a better reason than just me thinking it's fun to mess with her. (Which I do! XD) You'll also see in the next chapter wether or not, Tsunade is going to listen to the warning Shin has come to deliver. You'll get a closer look at Shin and her appearance too.

**blackgatito**, I'm promising you right now, that I will update as soon as I get the lap top back. Hope you enjoy reading the story as much as I enjoy writing it.

**ididntdoit8302**, thank you for telling me that you enjoyed the dialogue on my profile. (I know it was pretty long ago but if you're still reading I want you to know that I appreciated it ) : )

If you guys haven't visited my profile yet I encourage you to do that. It's a meeting between the authress and the Shin-story characters. : )

And here is some **INFO** for those who want it

**Kuroneko** (as in The black Scrolls that the Akatsuki wants): _Blackcat_ ( I thought I had made the name up, alas I'm but another copycat. I didn't know there was a manga with the same name.)

**Ryokou**: _Travel_ (The jutsu Shin performed inside the closet in the second chapter that got her into this mess to begin with)

If there are any unclarities ... anything that you don't get or don't like, tell me.

Dewa Mata! (See you!) - 

-


	9. Delivering the message at last

**I promissed didn't I? The lap top is back and here's the next chapter! Enjoy!**

**Chapter twelve:** Delivering the message

Tsunade was not in the best of moods. She had received a message the day before, that members of the Akatsuki had been spotted outside a village not too far away. This was very unnerving since that particular village was protecting the second of four dangerous artefacts. One of which had already been stolen.

The Hokage slouched back in her chair rubbing her forehead. The matter had kept her up all night consulting with a chosen few of the ANBU. The information she had received so far was not satisfying. The Roujo ninjas said that there had been an attack by Hoshigaki Kisame and Uchiha Itachi, but claimed that nothing had been taken from the shrine.

Tsunade felt the beginning of a major headache coming on and to make things worse, that Kamizuki Izumo had come barging into her office just as she was headed for her quarters. He wanted her to see two prisoners that had been discovered trying to _climb_ into Konoha.

"Of all stupid things", she muttered.

The only reason she had agree to this meeting was because Izumo had told her that Umino Iruka was downstairs threatening to beat the living daylight out of them all if they didn't handle this properly. Tsunade was of the opinion that going along with the Academy Instructor's request would be the wisest choice. She pictured the young sensei's wrath and shuddered.

There was a knock on the door.

"Yeah!", the Hokage hollered, laying her feet up on the desk and shutting her eyes, "Come on in!"

A small crowd consisting of Umino Iruka, the two patrolmen and a lean figure with some suspicious looking headwear masking his features , paraded through the entrance.

"I thought you said there were two?", the Hokage asked glancing at Izumo.

"There is, Hokage-sama", Iruka answered in his place, "Right here"

Tsunade followed his gaze downwards and saw a little hand latched to his pants. She raised an eyebrow as a small and dirty form took an unsteady step forward without releasing the firm grip on the sensei's clothing.

What the Hokage saw was a kid around three or maybe four years old and the girl was in miserable shape. Band aids covered most of the skin and what wasn't draped in plasters was concealed by a layer of filth.

The chin length hair, that probably should have been a much brighter colour was sticking out in any and every direction, giving the child a wild and uncontrollable look. The most interesting thing about her was however the eyes. They were as pitch black as a coal pit and contrasted sharply against the rest of her supposedly pale features. (Although it was hard to tell because of the dirt and band aids)

"Who's the brat?", Tsunade crossed her arms turning to Iruka.

Iruka opened his mouth to respond, but he never got the chance to.

"Don't you 'brat' me, old lady! I've been awake for 39 hours straight and I do _not_ have the patience for any more of this disrespectful crap!"

The room went very silent all of a sudden.

Izumo, Kotetsu and Iruka were frozen to the spot and the Hokage stared in disbelief. The girl was positively fuming with anger and glaring at Tsunade with those curiously raven eyes.

"I've come to tell you something important, but if no one wants to hear it, that's fine with me! I'll just crawl on back up the damn rabbit hole and you can find it out for yourselves!"

Tsunade was just as shocked as everybody else at the child's insolent behaviour and not to add, vulgar language, but she noticed one thing that the others didn't.

The other prisoner was reacting very oddly to the girl's mood. His knees were bent as if ready to jump and he had lowered his head making his back curve slightly into a hostile pose. She could easily picture him with fur, bristling.

"Hm.. What's you're name brat?", she asked putting on an unfazed expression.

"DON'T CALL ME BRAT!", the anger was more than evident in her voice.

Tsunade cast a quick glance towards the other prisoner to check if he was reacting.

He was. Even though his entire body was clad in black fabric she could sense the tension coming of him.

"Would you prefer if I called you pipsqueak?", she gave the smallest person in the room a haughty grin.

"THE NAME'S SHIN, YOU OLD BAT!"

Tsunade felt a vein pop on her forehead at the last remark but managed to keep her cool

while still checking the other one out of the corner of her eye.

He looked like he was about to pounce on her any second. That was all she needed to know.

"So, Shin? What was it that you wanted to tell me?", she asked folding her hands on her desk in a serious manner.

Approaching the kid with the calm and collected attitude worked like a charm. Tsunade could practically see the anger and energy running of her and down in a puddle on the floor. In the corner of her eye she also noticed that the other one had dropped his guard looking like nothing had been wrong to begin with.

"Well... If I tell you, you'll have to promise not to throw me or Hush in jail", the girl demanded.

"Hush?"

"That's Hush", she pointed with her free hand to the black dressed figure, "He's not as dangerous as he looks"

Tsunade nodded in understanding. It was obviously an attempt to assure them that there was no need to lock him up.

The girl was apparently unaware that her companion actually _could_ be just as dangerous as he looked.

"I can't promise not to hand you over to the police just like that, when I don't even know what you have done"

"But we haven't done anything", Shin whined, losing whatever air of maturity she'd had.

"Why were you trying to climb over the wall?", Tsunade asked.

"Extreme-sporting?", Shin suggested, receiving odd looks from the others present, "I didn't want any questions", her voice had gone serious again.

"What kind of questions?"

"That's not of any importance to you$", she answered, looking Tsunade straight in the eye.

The Hokage saw that she was going to get nowhere with the stubborn child if she kept pushing her, so she was going to let the rude behaviour slide this once.

"It has to do with the Black Scrolls"

Tsunade's eyes grew big and she almost threw herself over the table to shake the rest out of the kid. She somehow managed to control that impulse and asked coolly:

"The questions?"

The girl looked at her with a sceptical expression that annoyed the Hokage.

"Of course not", she replied impatiently.

It was clear that the girl thought she was being stupid and Tsunade had to force herself to calm down and not let the little brat get the better of her.

"What I came to tell you has to do with the Black Scrolls"

"How does a kid know of the Scrolls?", Kotetsu butted in and received a glare from Shin.

"I promise not to throw any of you in jail", Tsunade interrupted hastily before the girl had a chance to start yelling again, "Now tell me what you know"

The girl hesitated for a moment but then sighed heavily.

"I overheard a secret conversation between two people with red masks yesterday. I think they were ninjas and they were talking about the second scroll being stolen and that their loyalty weren't to the Hokage anymore. They're going to kill the demon if they can't stop Uchiha from getting the other two scrolls"

Once again the room went completely silent.

"This is no small accusation", Tsunade's face had turned to stone, "If this is true, the Roujo-nins has betrayed us and the second scroll is lost. Are you sure that this is what you heard?"

"I saw the Akatsuki doing it", Shin replied tiredly.

"Did they see you?", Tsunade asked, hiding her surprise over the fact that the child actually knew who the Akatsuki were.

Shin yawned.

"I nearly had my face pierced by a kunai", she answered rubbing eye with the hand that wasn't latched to Iruka's trousers.

"In other words, they did", Tsunade concluded, "And I'm guessing your friend Hush here saved you"

Shin nodded. Her eyes were drooping now.

"Well then, kid. I want to keep you close by for a while, just for protection. Do you have anywhere to go?"

"No, and I'm not a kid", she muttered.

"I'll admit you do have a wide range of knowledge and a pretty colourful vocabulary, but that doesn't make an adult. How old are you?", Tsunade inquired.

"Seventeen", the little girl mumbled, slumping against Iruka.

The room went dead silent for the third time but Shin didn't notice as she slid down on the floor with Academy Instructor's leg for support.

"Do you think the kid could be touched in the head?", Izumo asked, breaking the tension.

"Hm", Tsunade grunted, "Most likely some kind of trauma. Well, well", she turned to face Iruka who was looking down at his occupied leg.

She grinned widely and nodded at the unmoving body, "Looks like you have a new room-mate, Iruka-sensei"

"W..what?!", his jaw dropped to the floor, "B..but I can't take care of a child!", he exclaimed, "And I'm supposed to have a class in less than an hour"

"Oh, I'm sure you'll do just fine. Izumo and Kotetsu can take over your classes for today"

The two chuunin who had been smirking at Iruka's misfortune burst out in a united:

"WHAT?!"

"See it as a punishment for depriving me of my sleep. Now leave! I'm going to follow the brat's example"

"H..hai, Hokage-sama", the guards bowed and exited the office grumbling under their breath.

"Iruka-sensei", Tsunade stopped him right before he walked out the door with the four year old seventeen-year-old in his arms, "The one called Hush will also be staying with you"

"But Hokage-sama…", the bewildered young man tried to object.

"Don't worry. He doesn't eat or sleep. Just place him on the roof or something"

"But…"

"Or in the closet! I don't care! Now go!"

Tsunade watched the closed door for a while after they had left.

"You didn't tell him everything, Tsunade-sama"

"No", she answered with a small smirk, "It would just worry him, Shizune"

The other woman stepped out from the shadows where she had been standing and walked over to the window. The sun was climbing higher above the Hokage monument outside.

"Do you think Uchiha Itachi has used the third scroll to bring her back?", she asked.

Tsunade shook her head.

"The girl seems screwed up enough, but I doubt that the third village would have given it up so easily. I'll send out a messenger to know for sure, but I'm pretty certain that this kid came from some place else. Besides, if he brought her back from the dead, why is she here and not with the Akatsuki?"

"True", the younger woman nodded, "But, why did you assign her to Umino-san?"

"I just figured he could handle it. If someone can keep her under control it would be him", the Hokage shuddered again at the thought of an angry Iruka-sensei, "And he has kept that other brat under his wing for some time without strangling him. I would say that's a merit"

"Doesn't she need a higher guard, Tsunade-sama?"

"I believe her dark friend will be more than sufficient. She will be safe inside Konoha and we'll see how things develop, but now I am very much in need of some sleep", the Hokage stood up and was about to walk out into the corridor when she spotted something on floor.

It looked like brownish footprints leading from the door and ending in a small puddle in the middle of the room. She halted and her face paled.

"Shi..Shizune, is…is that… bloo..", and then she swayed to the floor in an unconscious heap.

* * *

**rae12391: **I'm really happy that you like it. Thank you for your lovely comments :) I'm not that fond of Mary Sues so I'll take that as a big compliment. .

Ja mata ashita!


	10. Onigiri breakfast and PAIN

**See! I've updated! It's fantastic! I'm kind of proud of this chapter. Shin is really starting to see the side-effects of being a small child. :)**

**Enjoy!**

**Chapter thirteen:** Onigiri breakfast and PAIN

_Mmm… warm, soft…__…Nice…,_ Shin stirred, _Don't wanna go to class... Boring stupid class. .. Stupid, deceiving classmates. I'm so getting back at them,_ Shin rolled over on her face and frowned, _When did I get a self heating pillow?_

She cracked an eye open and froze. Her face was currently pressing up against the clothed chest of an unknown male. Shin felt her insides drop through a black hole and almost fainted before she detected the males face. Everything came flooding back and the realisation hit her square in the head.

She was in Konoha. She actually was in _The_ Konohagakure. Sitting up she felt a quivering ball of excitement in the pit of her stomach. But that wasn't the only thing she felt there. growl She was starving.

Looking down at Iruka she had a sudden impulse to jump up and down on top of him until he woke up. (I don't think you'd have to jump that many times on someone before they wake up) It would be so fun to see his reaction.

_Wow__ there! Where did that come from? _

It would _not_ be funny to see his reaction. No good could possibly come out of such a childish act. And why wasn't she more bothered about waking up at the same bed as him?

Shin shrugged, grabbed a pillow and forcibly brought it down on the serene face of Umino Iruka.

The effect was immediate. The teacher shot up to sitting position, looking around him bewilderedly to discover where the sneak attack was coming from. His eyes locked on the dumbfounded Shin who was sitting beside him with a pillow in her grip and mouth somewhat ajar.

_I can't believe I just did that_, she stared in shock at the man she had just pummelled, _What was I thinking?! Did my synapses suffer some kind of meltdown?_

Iruka's expression went from complete confusion to a kind and gentle understanding.

"I see you're finally awake. Shin, wasn't it?"

Shin managed to break out of her paralyzed state and snapped her mouth shut, but still not able to stop staring.

"Did I get it wrong?", the brown-haired chuunin asked uncertainly when she didn't answer.

_Say something! Come on__, snap out of it!_

"I'm hungry!", she piped up.

_Ah! I just did it again. What's wrong with me?_

Iruka didn't seem to find anything out of place with her behaviour and gave her an comprehending nod.

"Yes, you would be. You've been sleeping for 24 hours", he looked out the window where the rising sun was colouring everything a warm shade of pink, "I guess I would have to get up soon anyway" he said and turned back to her, "Do you want some breakfast?"

Shin stopped her mental self-beating and nodded frantically.

Iruka smiled at her eagerness and stood up.

"What would you like to have?", he asked while tying up his hair in the usual ponytail.

Shin noted that he was only wearing a t-shirt and a pair of boxers, but the roaring beast that was her stomach told her to ignore the awkwardness.

"Pancakes!", Shin answered quickly.

Oh, how she would love some freshly fried pancakes with a ton of syrup on top!

Iruka, who was now pulling on the customary dark pants of his shinobi uniform, looked up at her questioningly.

"Pancakes?"

"Yeah?", Shin responded hesitantly.

Maybe they didn't eat that kind of thing for breakfast here.

"What are pancakes?", he asked.

Shin couldn't believe her ears. He didn't know what pancakes were. But the Naruto world was of course more or less Japanese and the Japanese didn't have pancakes. Did they?

"Um…I can eat anything. It doesn't matter"

"Well, I got some stuff yesterday in case you would wake up. How about some onigiri?", Iruka looked like someone would when they asked a kid if they want ice cream for lunch. (Or in this case breakfast)

Shin couldn't recall what onigiri was, although she _knew_ she'd heard it somewhere. Something to do with rice. Rice wasn't a good reason to get all worked up. Didn't they give kids sugar here?

"Okay", she told him and tried to look like she was excited about having those, onigiri.

But he seemed to have expected a more enthusiastic response because he looked at her as if wondering if she had a fever.

"Good. I'll be in the kitchen, if you need to use the bathroom it's just out here to your left", he walked out the door, leaving behind a fairly troubled Shin.

Still thinking about whether or not Konoha _did_ have food with sugar in it, she untangled herself from the sheets and crawled over to the edge of the bed. She was just asking herself if she had seen any real sweets on the anime when she remembered her dark travelling partner.

_Oh no! I left __Hush with the guards!_ She flung herself of the bed and rushed after Iruka. Shin raced passed the previously mentioned bathroom and then stumbled into a dining area where she noticed that her feet were burning like the deepest pits of hell.

"WAAAAHHHUmph!", in an attempt to grab both her feet at the same time she fell forward, made an ungracious somersault and ended up sprawled on her back, head pointing the way she had come and her throbbing feet on a low-style dining table.

"What's going on?", Iruka appeared in the doorway she had meant to enter.

His gaze went from Shin to the floor and back into the hall. She couldn't see what he was looking at from where she lay so she sat up and spun around. On the tatami (the typical Japanese mat/mats) was a trail of tiny red footprints all the way back to the bedroom.

_What _is_ that?_ she wondered and squinted at the smudged one closest to her.

That's when Iruka hastily kneeled in front of her blocking the view.

"WHAT HAVE YOU DONE TO YOUR FEET!", he cried.

"Huh? What?", Shin looked down at her feet which he had lifted up into his lap, "Aagh!", she let out a startled yelp before she could stop herself.

The feet were scraped everywhere and full of cuts and gashes, and that was just on top. Shin didn't even want to know what the other side was like for her to leave those marks on the floor.

"They look like they've gone through a meat grinder!", he exclaimed, bewilderment written all over his face, "What have you been doing?!"

"Nothing!", Shin shrieked at his accusations, "I haven't done anything!"

Iruka shook his head trying to calm down. The soles of the child's feet were bleeding exceedingly from all kinds of messy wounds and yelling wasn't going to help. He needed to get a first aid kit. The questions could be dealt with later.

Iruka shifted Shin's feet back onto the table again and ordered her to lie down. Shin didn't appreciate his commanding tone. She had learned the basics in first aid and already knew that you were supposed to keep the wounded body part higher than the rest of you.

_Oh no,__ I hope I'm not blacking out_, she thought as the floor swayed a bit.

She heard Iruka rummaging around in the bathroom and let a curse slip as he dropped something on the floor. Soon he was sitting beside her again, pulling out different kinds of torture devices from a box. There was the usual gauze and band aids, and then there were a few very small bottles and some needles. But the thing that caught Shin's attention wasn't any of the sharp objects. It was the considerably larger bottle filled with clear liquid that Iruka was unscrewing. Her eyes grew big as she realised the pain she was in for.

_Ha! Not in this lifetime!_

She swung her feet of the table and made to get up in one swift movement, but as soon as her soles merely brushed the floor she made another acrobatic attempt at picking up her feet simultaneously.

"What are you doing?!", demanded the baffled teacher.

Shin didn't answer. Instead she began crawling her way towards the kitchen. Maybe there would be a way out.

"And where exactly do you think you're going?!", she felt long fingered hands grip around her wrists.

"I'm just going outside for a bit", she whined, "It's stuffy in hear"

Iruka yanked and she slid backwards on her belly, probably receiving a few burn marks when the shirt slid up.

"_You_ are _NOT_ going outside!", he commanded, his tone implying he was angry and he wasn't going to let her get away.

"Ghhn!", Shin tried flailing her legs so he'd let go but only managed to spray blood over the table and accidentally kick Iruka in the stomach, hurting her more than him.

"Stop kicking! You're going to injure yourself even more!"

"I don't care!", she yelled and tried clawing her way forward with the sensei attached to her calfs. (Needless to say, it didn't work)

Iruka, who by now had understood that she wasn't willingly going to let him treat her injuries, (he's a bit slow isn't he? ') had had enough. He sat down on the floor and locked Shin's legs in-between his own.

"YOU ARE NOT PUTTING THAT ON MY FEET!", she shouted and began squirming as much as she could in the crippling position.

Iruka gritted his teeth while grabbing the bottle of antiseptic and a towel he had brought with him.

"LET ME GO!!", Shin bawled, beating the tatami with her fists.

There was a brief moment of silence when she felt the cold, trickling sensation of something wet running between her toes. Then the pain came. If she had thought her feet had been burning before it was nothing compared to the pain caused by the white hot poker she _knew_ Iruka must be pressing against them at the moment.

"AAAAHH!!!", she dug her nails into the carpet and bit her lip to cut of the screaming.

Iruka just held her legs steady until she stopped twitching.

"Mean man!", the teary-eyed Shin shot over her shoulder once the stinging had subsided into a steady ache.

"You'll thank me when you can walk properly", Iruka said without looking up from what he was doing, which was picking gravel and splinters of wood out of her feet with a pair of tweezers. Shin could tell though, that a vein was pulsating on his forehead and wisely decided to wait with the finger pointing.

**There you go..**

**I don't think it'll be too long before I update again. I'm sort of in a writing mood.**

**Please tell me what you think. The story in general. The mystery. (Is it mysterious enough?) Are there any requests for romance? (I'm still pondering that. And I know that a certain little guy is going to have a pathetic and unrequited crush on our poor heroine. And; No, it's not Naruto. He and Shin are going to have a quite different relationship)**

**Next chapter: Shin gets even more uncomfortable in Iruka's apartment, and the academy instructor himself grows suspicious. :)**

* * *


	11. Chapter 12 and 13

**Chapter ****twelve: **Questions and unreasonable answers

Twenty minutes later, Shin was sitting on her butt, looking at two white lumps lying in front of her.

_This can't really be necessary_, she thought as she stared darkly at the round packages that used to be her feet, _I look like an idiot_.

"Hm. I guess we'll have to stay inside today. There's no chance you will be walking any time soon", Iruka said while picking up the first aid things that lay scattered across the floor. There was no gauze left since all of it had been used on Shin's feet and the feared antiseptic bottle was now more than half empty.

"I was going to bring you along to the Academy but I'll have to get someone to fill in for me", he stood up and marched of to the bathroom again. Shin kept on staring at the bandage-bundles. How had this happened? She couldn't remember damaging them that badly. What was going to happen now? She couldn't move around on her own (she had of course already tried to get up after Iruka had released her and she wasn't repeating that one) so going anywhere was out of the question.

She glanced at the teacher as he came back into the dining room and entered the kitchen area. On the other hand, there wasn't really any need to. Staying with Iruka wasn't that bad. In fact it was probably one of the best things that could have happened to her. Now she could keep an eye on Naruto in case any masked ninjas showed up and, she realised, maybe she would have some time to investigate Konoha for real. She hadn't seen much of it running from bloodthirsty guards the other day and she couldn't wait to get out there. growl She put a hand on her stomach and made a face. But the excitement could wait. She was practically famished.

Shin rolled over on her stomach and crawled on all four towards Iruka, being careful to keep her feet up. They were rather heavy and kept bumping in to each other making her hiss at the touch.

She rounded the corner and sat down on the floor of the relatively small kitchen area. At the far end was a door and where she was positioned there was a small table for two, situated under a window. Between the door and the window the walls were lined with the standard kitchen stuff. A fridge, a sink, some cupboards, you know, the usual things. It was kind of shabby-looking just like the office at the Hokage tower and looked very much lived in. It didn't really strike her as the home of a shinobi.

"Are you really a ninja?", her mouth had again blurted it out before she had even finished the thought.

Shin mentally kicked herself.

_Did I leave a window open? __Where has my self control gone?_

Not that she was usually very polite, but today she seemed to uncontrollably utter every little thought.

Iruka looked up, or rather down, from what he was doing.

"Yes", was the calm answer and proceeded with whatever was up on the counter, "I am, as a matter-of-fact, but I'm not really an active ninja"

"You teach", Shin stated.

"I do", he confirmed, then he wrinkled his brow and glanced at her, "How did you know?"

_Oops! Not supposed to say that.__ Warning lamps for the Impossible-knowledge-detector going off! _

Shin decided to go with the idiot-proof-tactic and hope he would leave it.

"Because I'm smart", she declared bluntly and leaned back on her hands.

This kind of diversion usually worked back home. People would just role their eyes and forget about being suspicious.

Iruka raised an eyebrow and shot a fleeting look towards the bandage-balls before turning away again. But Shin had noticed and took it as a remark on her previous statement..

"Hey, it's not my fault they look like that. You're the one who wrapped 'em up"

"And you should be happy I did. They would only get worse and probably infected if you would have left them like they were. What did you do to them?"

Shin sighed and tried to wiggle her right foot. It stung.

"I guess I must have been too cold to notice"

Iruka was just setting down a plate on the table. His eyes grew big.

"Too cold to notice _that_?!", he sounded startled.

Shin figured the underside of her feet must have looked _really_ bad,

"What were you doing? And where did you come from? Does your parents know you're here? Are you allowed to travel by yourself with that strange figure?"

Iruka was gesticulating wildly. He apparently didn't like the thought of a child out on the roads.

"Calm down. It's not that bad. I didn't get mugged or anything", this didn't calm the sensei down at all, he just dropped his hand and looked at her in disbelief, "Honestly! I have only been travelling for…um..", Shin counted quietly in her head, "a day and a night. That's it"

Iruka _did_ calm down this time. He let out a sigh of relief.

"Did you run away from home? I suppose you live in that village where the robbery took place"

Shin shook her head.

"No, no. I don't live anywhere near here, but I suppose you could say that I ran away. Not from home though and it wasn't really my intention to do it"

"Well, where do you live then? It can't be too far away if it only took you so little time to get here. And where are your parents? They must be worried", Iruka continued setting the table while beginning to look puzzled.

"I haven't had any parents for five years now. I can take care of myself just fine"

"But..", Iruka by now, was looking very confused, "Five years… That doesn't…", he pinched the bridge of his nose trying to focus,

"If you have only been travelling for a day and a night, you _have_ to live somewhere close to here"

_Crap! I should've just made something up. He'__s not going to buy the alternate universe story._

"No comment", Shin replied folding her arms and looking away promptly

"No comment...", Iruka repeated to himself.

He was surprised to say the least, over the child's extensive vocabulary and way of speaking. It _did_ make a mature impression. However…

"You can't be more than three years old, four if you stretch it. That means you can't have been an orphan for five years. And I highly doubt a child your age is able to take care of themselves", the teacher had one hand on his hip and held a large spoon in the other. Dropping rice on the floor he waited for an explanation that actually made sense.

Either the kid was deliberately lying about almost everything or there was some kind of trauma involved just like Tsunade-sama had said.

"Hey! I told you, I'm seventeen. I'm perfectly capable and I don't have to explain anything to you", Shin retorted.

Iruka was just about to scold her for being rude, when Shin almost jumped up surprising him.

"Where's Hush? I left him with the guards! Did they throw him in jail?"

The chuunin lowered his raised finger and rubbed the back of his head, feeling slightly embarrassed.

"Um... no. He is not in jail. In fact he's here"

"He is?", Shin looked relieved and surprised, "Where?"

"Ano… In the hallway closet"

The kid looked at him disbelievingly with half lidded eyes and raised eyebrows.

"The closet?", the tone was dead-pan.

"Well... Tsunade-sama said he didn't eat or sleep and that I should just put him in the closet. I tried offering him some breakfast yesterday, and a bed. But he didn't accept it"

"So you put him in the closet?", Shin still looked like he was talking nonsense.

Which he kind of was. Iruka felt his ears grow slightly warmer. It did sound pretty dumb.

"Not to begin with, but he kept on watching me and never moved. It was very unsettling so… yes, I did eventually put him in the closet", he admitted and smiled awkwardly.

Shin blinked once and then leaned backwards on her hands again with a neutral expression.

"Hm, then I think he should be okay", she said and looked over her shoulder towards the hall, "He hasn't eaten or slept, or _talked_ for that matter, from the day I met him"

"When did you meet him?", Iruka asked, thinking that the strange figure must be a very old acquaintance.

"Two days ago", came the reply.

"WHAT?! You're travelling with a man you hardly know?! I thought you said you could take care of yourself. This certainly proves you wrong, doesn't it?"

"I _do_ know him. He saved my life and he just follows me around. It's almost like he's attached…Hey! What are you doing?!"

Iruka picked up the protesting child, ignoring the defensive explanation.

"You can't get up on the chair by yourself, can you? Hm… Looks like we're going to need a few books", he headed towards his study shifting the kid over to his hip the way you normally carry a toddler.

Shin turned very red and leaned as far away from him as possible. Iruka found this behaviour very strange and noted the relief when he placed Shin on top of the books he had laid on the kitchen chair. Odd, to say the least.

"What's that?", Shin pointed towards the plate, eyeing it's contents suspiciously.

Iruka looked from the child to the plate and back again.

"You have never had onigiri before?", he asked in disbelief.

"Oh, onigiri! Eh...yeah, sure. I've had onigiri", Shin laughed nervously, obviously lying.

There was something very mysterious about this child. It wasn't just the Hokage's obvious interest the day before that made him suspect so. It was the kid's foreign, almost singing accent, and that strange background that didn't seem to add up anywhere at all.

That, and of course the fact that Shin had never seen an onigiri before.

After nibbling on the first rice-ball Shin inhaled the rest of them and promptly leaned back in her chair. She didn't really have time to taste the food because the hunger had overwhelmed her but it couldn't have been too bad since she didn't leave any for the teacher.

Said teacher didn't seem to mind this and spent the following hour making more while discretely trying to pull information about her past out of her. Shin answered every question as vaguely and ambiguously as possible trying to keep Iruka from thinking she was loony, although she had already accomplished the opposite by trying to climb the twenty story wall.

Other than that, the remainder of the day crept its way forward very slowly, leaving boredom and passiveness in its wake. The onigiri however, left a really bad stomach ache and Shin had to go to bed early, which she, despite the pain, was thankful for the next day.

**Chapter ****thirteen: **Iruka makes the first of two significant discoveries

(I'm very fond of the scene in this next chapter. They're so cute and confused... )

There was one thing Shin had come to fear in Iruka's household, and that was the bathroom. Since she had spent her first 24 hours sleeping and the second day writhing in pain after devouring too many rice balls too quickly, he hadn't bothered about her cleanliness. But on their third evening together he had informed her that the bath was running and as soon as it was done she was going to have a good scrub down. At this Shin felt her muscles stiffen.

A bath? As in bathing? Without clothes? That would mean he'd see her naked! Physically she had the attributes of a toddler which equalled to nothing at all, but her teenage mind screamed that the age difference was _way_ too small for him to see her without clothes on. He was only 23 and that did _not_ feel okay.

So that was how they ended up with a something of a routine, consisting of Iruka drawing a bath every night, Shin running away to hide as soon as she heard the tub fill and when she heard water draining she would sneak into the bedroom and curl up under the comforter pretending to be asleep.

None of the two really understood how a crippled little girl managed to outsmart a shinobi in his own home. A home that wasn't very large and didn't have that many hiding places to offer. But she did. For three nights in a row Shin avoided the frustrated young teacher who desperately wanted to clean her off since she, or so he insisted, was beginning to reek.

Shin didn't believe his proclaims about her smell, but after seeing the marks she had made on the bed she new she was filthy. The sheets had been changed every morning. It had been done especially fast the morning they had discovered Shin's badly injured feet, because just like the tatami would never look itself again, neither would the bedding. Iruka had snatched everything of the mattress in an attempt to save it from any irremovable stains.

Each morning, before the teacher got up, Shin would crawl to the bathroom and hoist herself up on the toilet seat, leaning over to the washbowl to splash her face and arms, thus getting the worst of the dirt off. Or at least she thought so, but since she couldn't reach the mirror there was no way to tell for sure. Unless she took Iruka's word for it, then she had failed miserably.

On their fourth evening of following this sneaking and searching schedule, Shin was perched on top of the bookcase in Iruka's study. He had already been in there several times looking for her but it was like his gaze just rolled off her when he looked up towards the small space beneath the ceiling. If she stayed absolutely still it didn't matter how many times he checked, he still wouldn't see anything, but as soon as she moved it caught his attention and he would look again.

When she heard the water running out through the pipes she carefully climbed down the shelves, just managing to catch herself before slipping on the last one, and peaked out into the hall.

Shin had barely stuck her head through the doorway before a hand seized the back of her shirt and lifted her of the floor.

"I'll be damned if you go another night without washing! Enough is enough!", Iruka stated and attempted to carry Shin into the bathroom.

Shin spread out her arms and legs and clung onto the doorframe for dear life.

"Shin-kun, stop being so stubborn!", Iruka told her and took a hold of her waist, "It's only a bath"

"I don't want to!", she wailed and buried her nails in the wood when Iruka pulled to get her inside.

"I don't care if you want to…", he tugged at her waist, supporting his feet against the doorframe, "..or not. You are…", he pulled again leaning backwards to gain more leverage, "..going to have a bath tonight!"

"NO!", Shin gritted her teeth as she held on for all she was worth.

But neither of them were counting on Hush appearing in the doorway at that moment, scaring the crap out of Shin just as Iruka made a final jerk laying his entire body weight in the attempt. The result was the surprised sensei meeting no resistance at all, pulled Shin towards him and they both flew backwards tripping over the bathroom rug straight into the full bathtub.

For a second they both sat silently in the water but when Shin spotted the look on Iruka's face she couldn't help it. A small giggle escaped her and the next thing she knew she was hanging over the side of the tub laughing her head off. Iruka blinked once, trying to grasp what had just happened but soon he too was laughing at the hilarious situation.

When they both had calmed down somewhat, Iruka climbed out of the tub and told Shin that he was going to get some dry towels and clothes for them. Before disappearing out the door he made a stern face and threatened to shove several onigiri down her throat if she didn't stay put.

Shin watched him leave and as soon as he disappeared she heaved herself out of the water, wincing when her wet bandaged feet touched the floor. Needless to say, her clothes were soaked and plastered to her body. They were practically drenching the rug she stood on.

_I didn't __know a pair of shorts and a t-shirt could hold that much water_, Shin thought, feeling the fabric of her Garfield boxers.

Then she realised she was wasting time. Deciding that she couldn't very well sneak around the house in wet clothes she settled for making a quick escape to the tub where she could make lots of bubbles to hide behind. Shin rolled the shirt off her upper body and dropped it inside-out on the floor. Balancing on one sore foot trying to pull of the shorts over the other one she heard a gasp from the doorway. Startled by the sound she looked up at the face of a shocked Iruka. She made to take a step backwards but tripped over the half-way-off shorts, sending her flying backwards for a second time.

"You…you…", the teachers eyes were wide and he seemed to be having trouble getting whatever he was planning to say, out.

Shin who was sprawled over the bathtub with the shorts around her ankles, collected herself hurriedly and pulled up her knees to her chin, trying to block Iruka's view of anything she didn't want him to see.

There was a short moment of silence then the bewildered Iruka exclaimed:

"You're a girl!!"

Shin was stunned to silence.

"…Eh?", was her response to the sensei's accusation.

"But your name is Shin. Isn't it?!", Iruka was still staring at her, not noticing that he was dipping the towels in a puddle.

"Um…yes?", Shin looked up at him wonderingly.

"Shin is a boy's name!", Iruka had a face of absolute devastation.

"It is?"

Shin was surprised, this was news, to her at least.

"Of course it is! This is very inappropriate! It's not right!"

Shin felt her face grow red even though she was pretty sure she hadn't done anything she needed to be ashamed over.

_I guess I'm not the only one who thinks it's wrong for him to see me naked. Even if I do look like a four year old._

"First thing tomorrow I'm getting you a bed of your own!", he proclaimed heatedly, "And tonight I'm sleeping on the floor!", Iruka turned around and placed the dry stuff he was carrying outside in the hallway.

Then he closed the door. From _inside_ the bathroom.

Rolling up his sleeves he walked over to the tub and squatted, efficiently confusing Shin.

_Hang on__! Didn't he just say this was inappropriate?_

"Th..the floor?", she stuttered in lack of better ways to express her confusion.

"Of course!", he answered firmly, "And I promise you'll get a room to yourself in the morning. Now give me those. They're getting the water dirty", he reached into the tub and pulled the shorts over Shin's feat before throwing them on the floor on top of her shirt.

Shin was too stunned to be embarrassed and just stared at Iruka, trying to figure out how the man's mind worked, while he unwound the bandages.

_He thinks it's wrong to sleep in the same room as me…,_ she concluded, …_but doesn't mind seeing me naked? Not to mention undressing me personally?!_

Shin's thoughts were interrupted by Iruka trying to tell her something.

"Er.. say what..?"

Iruka sighed rolling his eyes.

"I told you to turn around", he repeated and placed his hand on top of her head, spinning her around himself.

Facing the wall, Shin felt something cold running down her scalp.

"Ah! He..hey! What are you doing?!", she made to turn around but firm hands on either side of her head turned it back again.

"I'm washing the mould out of your hair. Sit still!"

_What kind of strange moral values do they have in this place? Or maybe it__'s just Iruka? I'd think it'd be worse to wash somebody than to share the same bed as them. _

_But I guess I can see how it would be kind of inappropriate if you're not related to the other person. Still, if the other person looks like a kid. A really small kid. It should be alright. _

Bathing_ the kid, on the other hand, should _not_ be alright... I think…Or should it? Ugh, it's so hard to concentrate. Can't he stop rubbing my head for a minute so I can think? …although it feels kinda' nice. Wonder why I avoided this for so long?_

Iruka saw Shin's shoulders sink down from her ears as she relaxed. Steadily rubbing in the shampoo with his fingertips he calmed himself down. He was still a bit shaken from finding out that Shin, whom he had thought to be a boy, in fact was a girl. A girl with a fairly pretty hair colour he realised when the dirt finally came off.

Making the child sit up straight he began scrubbing her back and arms, making sure to get everything off. It was true that she had begun to smell and he was relieved to, at last, get to do something about it.

With every stroke of the bath sponge the small body became limper and gave in to the movement, offering no resistance. Deciding he was finished, Iruka grabbed her shoulders and made her face him, discovering her eyelids had dropped and she was practically sleeping.

"Sorry Shin-chan", he told her softly and proceeded to scrub her face, supporting it with his other hand from the opposite side and being careful around the cuts and bruises that were still healing , "I don't know what you've been up to, but whatever it was, you must have done it in a pile of dirt"

The girl sent him a sleepy glare for disturbing her comfortable state.

"There", Iruka said when he was finished, "I'll just get a towel", he got up and fetched one of the towels from the hallway.

When he turned back, his little ward was drooling serenely on the side of the tub. He smiled and shook his head, wondering why she had tried so hard to keep away when she obviously had enjoyed a warm bath.

Once he had dressed her in one of his t-shirts and put her to bed, Iruka took a look at the wounds. Thankfully they hadn't opened up again but it was still a pretty nasty sight and she wasn't walking yet for a while. After wrapping them up again he straightened his back and gazed down at the sleeping form.

The short hair had turned out to be a pale blond and stood out like the halo of an angel, or in this case it held more similarities to the wild mane of a lion. A small and right now, very sweet-looking lion. Her skin had also changed and proved to be paler than it had been before and contrasting to her large black eyes it gave a misleading look of frailty.

Iruka furrowed his brow and rubbed his eyes remembering the past couple of days that had been a constant game of hide-and-seek-tag, with him being the involuntarily 'it'. If he hadn't been searching for the little brat in order to make her bathe, he'd been trying to prevent her from crawling out a window in search of entertainment. Luckily Shin didn't understand how the locks worked and was therefore forced to accept that she wasn't going anywhere.

This was something that got Iruka to wonder who she really was. She seemed unfamiliar with common things like riceballs or simple traditions like thanking before and after a meal. And sometimes he would here her mutter strange things like; Ipod, internet and 'Pirates of the Caribbean'. This usually happened when she was bored so he guessed these things were games or toys of some sort.

Iruka lied down on the futon he had rolled out for himself on the floor and crossed his arms behind his head.

There had also been one time when he told her they were having ramen. He had been prepared to explain what this was to her, since she hadn't know what miso soup or nikujaga was and Shin surprised him by loudly exclaiming: 'Ichiraku!', and immediately clasping both hands over her mouth afterwards.

He had asked her if she'd been there before and the girl had gotten a very concentrated expression on her face as if thinking really hard. After a little while she told him yes, and then refused to answer who she had been there with and when she was in Konoha last, telling Iruka that he didn't have to know those things.

The bossy behaviour had annoyed him. If she had been in Konoha before and even at the common ramen bar he so often went to, her family couldn't be too far away. When the daughter of Ichiraku's owner, Ayame, had showed up with their food Shin surprised him again by poking around in the bowl and asking if it really was ramen.

_Surely she should know what ramen looked like if she had been to Ichiraku_?, he pondered.

His general idea about her past was that she must have gotten separated from her family some time ago and by chance stumbled over the piece of information that brought her to Konoha. That would explain why she had looked like a wild animal and was a stranger to etiquette and customs.

He sighed tiredly and glanced up at the foot of the bed where her dark companion had curled up like a cat.

_But it doesn't explain that strange creature or how she knows about Ichiraku_, he thought, _Or why she insisted on ordering miso ramen without knowing what it was._

His eyes drifted over to the bright tuft of hair occupying his pillow. That reminded him of a certain loudmouthed ninja that ought to be back from his mission any day now.

"I wonder what Naruto will make of this?", he mumbled before falling asleep to the rhythmic breathing of one of his roommates.

**Thank you!**


	12. Meeting Suzu

**Chapter sixteen:** Meeting Suzu

This was the first time Shin had been let outside since she had come to stay with Iruka and as if to celebrate the occasion it the weather was terrific.

The few clouds that were, floated fluffily (is that even adjectiv?) across the clear sky. Shin spread out her arms and inhaled the fresh breeze.

"Shin-kun, stop moving around! I'm sore enough as it is after our little struggle yesterday"

Shin dropped her arms as well as her smile. Riding on the sensei's back somewhat put a wet blanket over the liberation she had felt a moment ago.

"We should have brushed your hair before going out. You look like you've been electrocuted", the chuunin sighed at the hopeless mess on top of her head, "Good thing I managed to find some clean clothes"

"They're too big…", Shin commented dryly and flapped the long black sleeves to prove her point.

"Well, at least they're better than the pair you've been wearing up until now"

Shin was quiet for a second reflecting on this.

"Where did you put my Garfields? I couldn't find them this morning", she crossed her arms and gave the back of Iruka's head a demanding stare.

"If you are talking about the shorts, I burned them"

"You, WHAT?!"

"I burned them", Iruka repeated, "You have been wearing them for a week without taking them of once. They smelled really bad. I doubt they were even washable"

Shin couldn't comprehend what he was telling her.

"You burned my Garfields?"

"Yes"

"You can't just burn peoples clothes like that!", Shin exclaimed and caught sight of Iruka's ponytail, "Especially not my shorts!", she couldn't resist the urge and grabbed it.

"Shin-kun, they were beyond rescuing. Ouch! You are pulling my hair!"

Shin was very angry and felt she was loosing control over her actions.

"You destroyed my Garfields", she said and pulled again, "Bad Iruka!", apparently she wasn't fully in charge of her mouth either.

"If you would have taken a bath earlier like I told you to, I wouldn't have had to get rid of them

…………………………….

Kotetsu and Izumo looked up from their posts, or rather their card game and spotted the arguing couple coming towards them.

Iruka was carrying an angry kid on his back who was furiously tugging at his hair with both hands. The sensei looked like he was about to snap any second. His face had turned tomato red with pent up annoyance and he appeared to be concentrating hard on counting his steps. He had almost reached ten when Kotetsu decided to get his attention before he walked into something.

"Yo!", the spiky-haired nin called out, "Iruka-sensei, is that the little brat we caught last week? Looks like he's been causing you some trouble, ne?"

The kid's eyes were instantly directed at Kotetsu and Iruka was just in time to catch her before the guard was attacked.

"Shin-kun is a girl", he explained while restraining said child from pummelling Kotetsu.

"Hm… He does look a bit too feminine for a boy, at least now he's clean"

Shin growled and kicked to free herself from Iruka's grip. She still hadn't cooled off from finding out about the loss of her Garfields.

"She. It's _she,_not _he._ And I was wondering if the two of you could watch her for a few minutes while I pay a visit to the Hokage tower"

The patrolmen hesitated for a moment and glanced at Shin who had exhausted herself trying to get loose.

"I don't knooow…", Izumo replied rubbing his chin, "Can she play cards?"

Iruka was about to protest that small children couldn't and _shouldn't_ play cards, but was interrupted by Shin.

"Did you say cards", lighting up like a broke nicotine-addict spotting a cigarette on the sidewalk.

"You play?", Izumo bent forward eyeing her lazily with the eye not covered by his bangs.

"Of course she doesn't! She's only four years old!"

He just _had_ to remind her at every chance. Shin gave Iruka a dark glare, but the effect was lost due to the fact that she was hanging under his arm.

"I have to go now", he said not seeing the imaginary knifes being thrown his way, "Whatever you do, don't let her walk about. Her feet are still healing. I'll be back in a little bit to pick her up. Oh, and no gambling in front of the child, got it?", he added before heading towards the Hokage's office.

"Don't be late, dear!", Kotetsu called after him in a high pitch voice, snickering as he saw the sensei's shoulders tense.

"So!"

The guards turned around to see Shin standing at their make-shift 'upside down crate' –table, shuffling the deck like a professional Las Vegas Black Jack dealer.

"In what game do you prefer to get your asses kicked?", a superior smirk creeping up on her face.

………………………………………..

"Ha! Read 'em and weep! Hand over that shuriken, Izumo!", Shin stretched out her hand towards him.

She was wearing Kotetsu's vest and gloves and beside her recently thrown cards lay several things that had been used instead of money or markers. She was now the proud owner of a small weapons pouch, two kunais, a little book with indecent pictures, a whistle and Izumo's lunch.

Izumo grumbled and was about to hand over his shuriken to her but stopped mid motion. The threesome looked up from their game and was met by Iruka's deadly stare. The top of his face lay in deep shadow, allowing his eyes to give of an ominous shine. And on top of that the background had turned into dark storm clouds and he was sporting a very strained smile.

"Izumo-saan.. Put down that shuriken. Right. Now", he said weighing heavily on the last two syllables.

Without taking his eyes of Iruka, Izumo carefully placed his weapon on the table.

Shin gawked at the teacher, now she understood why everyone was so afraid of getting on his bad side.

"Goood", the storm clouded background melted away and the freaky shadow over his face was replaced by a pulsating vein on his forehead, "Now..", he continued with restrained anger in his voice, "Will somebody please explain…", the two gatekeepers huddled, anticipating what was to come, "..how this is _NOT_ GAMBLING IN FRONT OF THE KID THAT _SHOULD_ BE SITTING DOWN!", Iruka bellowed and pointed to Shin standing on the opposite side of the crate with Kotetsu's too large vest hanging off her shoulder.

The guards mumbled some half comprehendible explanations at their rolling thumbs. Shin's gawking turned to a quiet snicker. On the plus side of being a small, you seldom got the blame.

"And _YOU_!", Shin stopped her gloating and looked up at the accusing finger, "I distinctly remember telling you to stay of your feet! _Sit down!_"

Shin flopped down on the ground. Iruka sighed and rubbed his eyes tiredly with one hand.

"How are those wounds ever going to heal if you keep standing on them?"

Poor Iruka was obviously stressed out worrying over the injuries and her recovery. Shin had a moment of guilt, but dropped the thought almost immediately, remembering she was only his assignment and he didn't care for her personally.

_Why does he always have to spoil every bit of fun_

"Ne, Iruka-san", Iruka turned to Kotetsu who had dared to open his mouth now that he seemed to have calmed down, "What did Hokage-sama say?"

The sensei hesitated for a second before answering.

"She laughed at me"

"Huh? Why'd she do that?"

"Hokage-sama said she had expected me much earlier and called me stupid for not realising Shin was a girl until now. Apparently she knew from the beginning but chose not to tell me"

Izumo and Kotetsu looked at each other and tried to muffle their chuckling.

"What?", Iruka inquired, eyebrows raised.

"You have to admit, Iruka-sensei, that you've gotta be pretty dense to live with someone for a week without knowing what gender they are", Kotetsu replied with a crooked grin.

Izumo laughed out loud, seemingly forgetting not to provoke the younger chuunin. The younger man blushed slightly from irritation and embarrassment.

"Hmph.. Like you didn't think she was a boy"

"We're not the one who slept in the same bed as her, you perv Iruka-sensei", Izumo teased, still stifling his laughter at the other's awkwardness.

At this Iruka's face turned a darker shade of the pink recently adorning his cheeks. Shin followed his example and felt her ears heat up.

Normally she would have reacted on this earlier. Instead she had been so occupied avoiding the bath that it hadn't occurred to her up until this point, that it was a bit awkward for them to sleep in the same bed.

_It has to be this stupid body. Four year olds are so naiv__e._

In an attempt to save his dignity, Iruka ignored the last remark.

"Tsunade-sama also sent me to inform you about the current situation"

"What situation?", Kotetsu lost whatever glee was left on his face.

"The Roujo-nins and the Akatsuki"

Shin's ears perked up in interest.

"I've been asked to fill you in on some classified details"

"Has it anything to do with the sightings yesterday?" the spiky haired ninja asked, "I heard an Akatsuki member had been spotted near the east side of the village"

By now Shin was listening intently. Anything about Itachi and Kisame's doings were interesting news and after being cooped up in Iruka's apartment she was desperately craving some excitement.

"But..", Izumo spoke up, "We're only chuunins. Why are we included? This is ANBU business, isn't it?"

"I'm not entirely sure why", Iruka looked serious, "It seems like the Hokage is purposefully keeping it a secret for some reason, but my guess is it has something to do with a certain…", he turned and noticed the keen attention their conversation was receiving from his young charge, "I think there is a pair of ears to many around here", he said and reached over the crate-table to pick her up.

So Shin found herself sitting in the middle of a rather large patch of grass behind the guard booth with nothing but a tree for company, close enough for Iruka to keep an eye on her, but too far away to hear what they were saying.

_How am I supposed to find out anything like this?,_ Shin asked herself.

She badly wanted to know anything concerning the Akatsuki and those scrolls they were stealing. Maybe she would be able to figure out a way to protect the demon vessel if she knew what all this was about.

_Yeah, right… Like I could do a better job than the ANBU. _

She sighed at the thought and folded her arms.

But she had been seen and almost killed by the enemy. She had a right to know! Shin strained her ears to catch anything of what was being discussed, but the noise from the enormous busy village filled her head, blocking out anything useful.

She crossed her legs. Now would be a good time to have Hush's good hearing.

Her mind wandered back to that incident in the forest, when she had thought they were being followed. Most of it was a blur. Her memories from the first days where kind of fuzzy from lack of sleep and food, but she could recall thinking that Hush had terrific hearing.

He had heard the breathing of whoever had been stalking them.

How was that even possible? You can't here somebody's breathing unless you're pressing your ear against their chest. It must have been something else that alerted him of the unwanted presence.

Shin looked over to the men and again tried to focus her hearing on their conversation, attempting to press the sounds of the village away.

Hush couldn't have heard breathing. That was ridiculous, not even an animal was that good.

She continued tuning out the surroundings, careful to not push too hard. Gradually the world began to fall silent and she closed her eyes in concentration, trying to keep focus off the sounds she didn't want.

_Maybe it was just my imagination __playing tricks on me. Lack of sleep does that to people. He was probably looking around for dangerous animals._

It felt like she had stuck her head in a bucket of water. All noises where muffled. All apart from one pulsating beat.

_How did I even get the idea that breathing was what he had heard?_

The pumping sound increased. The heavy bu-bump bu-bump, filled her head and coursed through her body.

It wasn't coming from inside herself. She could feel the source near npw. Everything but the steady beat fell away. And then there was complete silence.

The sensation cleared her memory.

_But I heard it too!_

Shin's eyes snapped open.

Spinning around as fast as she could sitting down, she found nothing but the empty grass behind her. The beating sound had vanished but she could feel it was still there even though she couldn't find it.

"Good ears"

Shin jerked her head upwards so quickly she thought she'd gotten a whiplash injury. On a low branch in the tree, barely concealed by the leaves, sat a figure dressed in red.

Shin noted that it was a young girl and breathed a sigh of relief. The freaky sound had gotten her all wound up for nothing.

The girl on the branch tilted her head slightly to the side with an evaluating look. Shin didn't like it.

"What do you want?", she asked crossing her arms and legs again.

"You have very good hearing", the stranger commented, not answering Shin's question, "You heard me even though I held my breath"

Shin eyed the girl carefully. She looked to be about eleven years of age, so Shin guessed she really was around eight. For some reason everyone looked a lot older to her nowadays.

The girls eyes were as black as her own and her hair that was the same colour as the eyes, fell long over the deep red garment she wore.

It looked like a dress-version of that t-shirt Sasuke wore in the anime. Her legs were bare and she wore those old fashioned sandals of wood that Shin always had believed to be very uncomfortable.

"What about it?", Shin wanted to know.

"You're living with Iruka-san, aren't you?", asked the girl in a deadpan voice.

Shin was getting annoyed that her questions went unanswered.

"Who are you? One of his students?"

Neither the girl's voice nor face showed any trace of emotion when she finally gave an answer.

"No. He is not my sensei"

"Then who are you, and what do you want?"

The girl watched her for a second before replying.

"Call me Suzu. I wanted to make your acquaintance", she gave a slight nod in greeting and a soft jingle was heard when a small bell, pinned in her hair, fell forward.

Shin calmed down. She knew first impressions could be misleading and decided to give the girl a chance despite her attitude problem.

"I'm Shin", she replied, "My acquaintance, huh? That's a pretty big word for an eight year old"

"It's a pretty big word for a four year old", Suzu retorted with a straight face.

Shin checked the girl for any sign of mockery but the statement was made free from humour. She smiled.

"I guess appearance can be deceiving, then"

"I suppose it can", Suzu agreed.

There was a pause during which the neither let there gaze drop from the other's.

"It wasn't only hearing"

"What?", Shin asked in surprise.

"You felt me. What was it that alerted you to my presence? I wasn't moving and it couldn't have been my breathing. Perhaps…my pulse?"

Shin's eyes widened in surprise.

"How did y…? Wha…?"

"Shin-kun!", Shin almost jumped at the sound of Iruka's voice.

"Eh?!", she peaked over her shoulder, and saw the Academy instructor walking towards her, "Looks like I have to go, but maybe I'll see you…", Shin turned her head only to find the branch empty, "…around?"

She felt a tap on her shoulder and looked up into Iruka's smiling face.

"We need to get going if we want to find you a bed today, or else I'll be spending another night on the floor", he rubbed his stiff neck, "My tatami isn't the cosiest"

"Can't we both sleep in your bed?"

Iruka's cheeks turned pink again.

"And you're supposed to be seventeen", he muttered, hoisting her up on his back.

Shin mentally kicked herself. Wasn't this word vomiting ever going to stop?

Kotetsu and Izumo snickered at Iruka's embarrassment as they left.

Shin glanced back at the tree. Nothing there, but a very faint jingling of small bells.

* * *

Wah! I'm sorry there's no Hush in this chapter. I'm actually surprised that so many took a liking to him. He sure is a mysterious figure. I'm not sure what I was thinking when I created him. Well, there is an explanation but you'll all just have to grin and bear it while this fantastic plot unfolds. (I'm being sarcastic here... At least I'm trying to but your encouragements has made my head swell...) XD

Thanks for all your wonderful reviews. They give me inspiration :)

Ghost Girl Sora: Shin is going to meet Naruto in a not-too-far of future. Judging by their personalities how do you think they're going to get along? Oh, I'm not going to spoil it. You'll have to be curious until our loud-mouth of a ninja enters the stage.

Deserter: Hm.. Shin re-aging? That's a good question, but I'm not going to answer it. But if she does re-age, she wouldn't look as cute together with Iruka, ne? Ah, and about Hush. The revealing of his true nature is drawing closer. The Hokage knows something she's not telling. You'll see soon enough. I love reading your reviewes. They're so enthusiastic. :D

Wandering Hitokiri: I really liked your story too :) That's why I faved it. Thanks for the compliment on my grammar. English isn't my first language so I get really confused sometimes.

Loveless Minji-chan: I'll see what I can do about Hush. He is growing to be one of the more important characters in this fic, even if he did't start out that way. I hope you continue enjoying this story.

Mixy Lang: I don't know what to say! That is the absolutely most wonderful praise I've gotten. Thank you so much for those words. They made me smile :)

Until next time: Matta Neh!

(I might have some trouble accesing a computer in the near by future but keep up the good spirit! I'm still writing!)

* * *


	13. NOTE: I'm still here!

NOTE!!

My dear readers!

I'm REALLY REALLY sorry for not updating!! I just wanted to let you know that I'm still alive and intend to see this fanfiction through to the bitter end... But not today...

...

sorrysorrysorrysorrysorrysorry!!

But as a treat I'll give you a little preview of something else that I've been working. -

I've been using a very interresting idea that I haven't seen in any Naruto fics even though I've looked.

You know how many fics are about kids going to sleep or getting hit in the head and then waking up in the Shinobi World, and when the adventure is over they wake up at home again?

What if it was the other way around? What if everything you thought to be reality was actually a dream? And the place you believed to be nothing more than pure fantasy was where you had been living all along. Confusing? Yes. But that's exactly what happened to Jennifer.

* * *

"One night in Konoha Hospital, a nurse gets the worst fright of his life when a patient that has been unconcious for the past twelve years all of a sudden wakes up.

The patient, nr. 7505 Sorano Tori, said to have slept since the day she was born has opened her eyes."

Jennifer wakes up in a strange room.

She can't move. Her body has been rendered completely useless from, as people tell her, not being put to work for most of her life.

She is now facing an existence in a world she thought to be purely fictional, where she is forced to relearn everything from scratch from breathing to riding a bike, all while constantly questioning her sanity.

If it wasn't for the assistance of a certain kind hearted nurse, Jennifer would have given up to lunacy from the very beginning.

* * *


	14. Enter ramenrival!

* * *

**Hello all you wonderful Naruto-lovers!! °°**

Here it finally is! Chapter fifteen... ENTER RAMEN-RIVAL!!

Before the story begins there is a question to be sorted out... Dun dun duuun!! :D

**tomato sauce: **I almost figured someone would ask so I shall explain. Iruka and Shin aren't _that_ close. This is why he is calling her by the less-cute suffix 'kun'. It's to mark that their relationship is purely business. (Or maybe he's trying not to get to close to her...) The suffix is usually used for younger boys but sometimes also when there's a large gap in age and things are kept on a formal level... That, or Shin is just a bit too tomboyish to be called cute things X)

Anyway, thanks for your wonderful reviews!! Hope you like the new chappie!

* * *

**Chapter fifteen: **Enter ramen-rival

Shin turned over for the 74th time since she had lain down.

For some reason she just couldn't get comfortable. It was either too chilly or too hot and the futon varied between being too hard and too soft every time she rolled over. In reality she knew there was nothing wrong with the futon. It was a regular, brand new mattress that didn't differ much from the one she had been sleeping on for the past five years at the boarding school.

But whether the bed was nice enough or not, she knew for certain that there was one problem she wasn't imagining.

It was too quiet. She was lying in the study and the silence was pestering her ears, making her feel like she was the only one awake in the entire world.

_It must be all those years of sleeping in the same room as someone else, s_he decided, _I just have to get used to not having someone snoring in my ear the entire night. That's all this is_. _Just an old habit that needs breaking down_.

She turned over again, making the sheets twist around her legs.

But it wasn't just the room. Or the silence. It felt like there was a hole in her stomach. A sort of emptiness she wasn't sure how to fill.

_I'll be damned if I let something as stupid as this get to me. This is Konoha, for Buddah's sake! I'm in the world of ninjas and I can't fall asleep by myself?! This is pathetic!, _she scolded.

Rolling over on her other side, again, she scowled at the dark figure huddled in the corner between the bookshelf and the wall. Hush's presence, or more like lack thereof, annoyed her. He might as well not have been there at all for all the comfort he was.

For a moment Shin wondered what he really looked like beneath the dark layers. But her mind only brushed the subject before immediately letting it slip away again.

Turning once more she sent the empty wall a glare.

"Dumb old habits", she muttered, "I'll beat you. Just wait..", and so commenced a staring contest with an unspecified spot in the greyness of the vertical surface, which Shin unfortunately won by the end of the night.

…………………………………………………………………………………………..

"Hokage-sama"

Tsunade didn't turn away from the tedious paperwork on her desk as she acknowledged the presence of a kunoichi perched on the windowsill behind her.

"Reports from the third village"

"Go ahead"

The kunoichi's face lay hidden beneath a mask with the features of a bird and her voice betrayed no emotion whatsoever as she delivered the news with unwavering professionalism.

"It's gone"

Now Tsunade looked up.

"Akatsuki?"

The kunoichi shook her head.

"No. The guard confirms that the scroll was found and destroyed by red-masked shinobi. In other words…"

"The Roujo-nins…", Tsunade ended her sentence.

"Hai. The Clan heir, Roujo Daichi, was among them"

Tsunade furrowed her brow.

"I see… So what the brat said was true. The Roujo's hatred has driven them to go as far as breaking their allegiance to Konoha", she said, lacing her fingers together in thought, "But if the _third_ scroll has been destroyed it means that this whole episode might just be over. The rest of the Black scrolls are useless without the third"

The kunoichi sat unmoving on the sill as the Hokage paused.

"It all comes down to one Wild card", she continued, thinking out loud.

"Hokage-sama, what are your orders concerning the child's protection?"

"Protection? There's no need for any drastic measures yet. There's a large gap in this whole mess that we can't seem to fill. A bodyguard would just draw unnecessary attention to her. Not to mention it would be a waste of time and resources. For now, just keep an eye on the brat and pay attention to her dark companion as well" , Tsunade turned back to the stack of paper in front of her and glowered at it, "Oh, and…", she said without looking at her subordinate, "Let me know as soon as team seven gets back. Hatake Kakashi has three late reports"

The kunoichi gave a curt bow to the Hokage's back.

"Ryoukai", and disappeared in a puff of smoke.

………………………………………………………………………………..

Somewhere out in the vast forest:

(Which seems to be the only scenery we're ever going to get in this story.)

"Achoo!"

"Kakashi-sensei, are you alright? You aren't coming down with a cold, are you? Should we stop for a rest?"

Hatake Kakashi looked back over his shoulder at the three youngsters walking behind him.

"Iah, I'm fine, Sakura. It's not too far to Konoha from here, if we stop now we'd only be wasting time that could be spent better at home"

"Yeah! Like eating ramen! I'm going to have Iruka treat me to a thousand ramen bowls! It feels like I haven't been to Ichiraku for weeks"

"That's because you haven't, you moron"

"What was that, Sasuke-baka?!", shouted the shortest of the group and was just about to try pummelling his team-mate to the ground, but was grabbed by their teacher before getting the chance to do so.

"Oi, Naruto. Sasuke has a point. And if you walk instead of fight, you'll get there faster"

Naruto stopped thrashing in his grip, realising the logic.

"Hm..", he scratched his cheek in thought, "I guess you're right", then his face lit up, "So what are we waiting for?! Come on, hurry up! The faster we walk, the sooner me and Iruka can have RAMEN!" he howled and sped off down the road.

Kakashi heaved a tired sigh as he watched the yellow bolt disappear in the distance.

He sent a sympathising thought to the young sensei.

……………………………………………………………………

At the Academy:

_It was always there. Blending into the background. The sound of a presence, immense yet at the same time no more solid than darkness. Eerie whispers emitted out of the nothingness around her. It was like a living mass of something not really alive. She reached out a hand and felt icy breath stroking her fingertips. It wrapped itself around her skin before sinking in, making it go numb with cold. She backed away in surprise and fervently started to rub her hand as the icey sensation began reaching for her veins._

"Achoo!"

Shin heard the noise through her foggy dream-like state.

"Iruka-kun, here are the ungraded tests from last week"

Shin was sitting on the floor, leaning against something hard that would be considered a not so comfortable backrest if one were awake. Her eyelids felt heavy and to spare herself some discomfort she had just decided to fall back into the soft darkness of sleep when she recognised Iruka's voice somewhere near.

"Thank you, Oda-san"

He sniffled and then began shuffling around papers.

"We haven't seen you around for a while, Iruka-kun", the other, huskier male voice remarked.

"I've been kind of busy lately", Iruka answered apologetically, "I had to get Hanako-san to fill in for me"

"It's rare for you to take a day off. Not to mention a week"

"There are a lot of things going on right now"

"Oh, that's right! I heard you were out shopping with some little boy yesterday. Don't tell me you've gone off and got yourself a kid? Iruka-kun, I didn't know you were that kind of guy, eh?", the grin in his voice was audible.

Shin had only been listening with half an ear, but now she was fighting the urge to get up and kick the man in the kneecaps for calling her a boy. (Denying the fact that she wasn't able to reach that high in her currant physical state) However, what Iruka said next drained her of any adrenaline she might have built up.

"No, off course not. It's just a task I've been assigned by the Hokage..."

Shin had been called anything from a burden to a down right pain, but had never taken it to heart. Now she was being referred to as 'a task' and suddenly it stung. The hole she had been feeling the night before made a jerk and expanded.

Deciding she didn't want to hear anymore Shin let her head drop against her shoulder and slid a bit further down the leg of the desk she was leaning against.

"So where is the little rascal now?", Oda Hiroshi asked.

"Ah yes, I couldn't leave her at home all by herself so I decided to bring her with me to the Academy", Iruka turned to check that Shin was still sitting up against the back of his desk where she had fallen asleep when they arrived that morning. But the spot she had been sitting in last time he checked was empty.

He pushed the chair back to look under the desk and then stood up searching the room with his eyes.

"Lost the kid have you?", Oda chuckled, "They're like that you know. Can't look away for a second or they will have both hands on the stove and the next thing you know your rushing to the hospital"

"She was sitting right here", Iruka gestured towards the empty spot, " How could I not have noticed when she left?"

"Oh, so it's a girl", the large man replied, not hearing the agitated tone in Iruka's voice, "Well, she doesn't seem to be there now. You see, girls are trickier that way. Can sneak of at anytime without a trace"

Iruka silently wondered how reliable the information was coming from a man in his mid twenties who didn't even have any younger siblings much less children of his own. But true or not true about the incredible stealth of small girls, Shin had up and left and if Iruka didn't find her he had the feeling that the chances of her getting into trouble were close to fact.

"The grading will have to wait. Oda-san would you please tell Hanako-san that she won't get the tests until tomorrow. I have to go look for Shin..."

Just as Iruka stood up to leave there was a small thump to the left of his chair. He caught the shocked expression on Oda's face and followed his gaze, turning around to find Shin lying on the floor behind his desk. The thump obviously coming from her falling over. Still asleep.

"Shin..?"

"Iruka-kun.., you haven't been teaching the kid any concealing jutsus by any chance?"

Iruka shook his head. Oda was rubbing his chin in thought looking troubled.

"She just appeared out of nowhere", he muttered.

"You saw it?", Iruka asked curiously.

Satou nodded, but creasing his eyebrows at something still lingering in his mind.

"Yeah, I saw", he made a pause as if to add something else, then he shrugged and smiled at the young chuunin, "She's probably been watching you do it, right sensei?", he joked, though the crease was still there on his brow, "Well, I have to get going now. Important missions and so on. Have a good day Iruka-kun"

"You too Oda-san"

After he'd left Iruka silently looked down at his charge. She shuddered in her sleep and he reached for his jacket shaking his head while smiling at himself. It was probably just like Oda said. She had been watching him train and copied what she saw. He covered her up before sitting down with the tests again.

Although... he couldn't remember doing any jutsus at all since he had been put in charge of her..

Shin woke up just as Iruka was finishing up the grading. There had been quite a few papers piling on his desk since last time he'd come in. In the back of his mind he grumbled over Hanako-san's laziness and thought about letting her babysit Shin for a day instead, see how she'd like that!

When they finally got back to the apartment it had grown dark outside and it had begun to rain so Iruka had to run the last block with Shin on his back to avoid getting wet. As it were they both ended up soaked anyway and Shin had to take a bath to avoid catching a cold. At least that's what Iruka said. Shin didn't buy that a bath could save you from a cold but was too tired to resist the stubborn chuunin insisting that he was trying to save her from the horrors of a runny nose.

Her inner clock also seemed to have got screwed up somehow. It could have been jetlag from travelling between two worlds or maybe the trauma of ending up in a body 13 years to young. (She stubbornly refused to believe that it had anything to do with her having an all-night staring contest with the study-room wall) Besides that, the weather appeared to be doing a number on her as well.

Sitting on the kitchen table Shin was staring out the window tracing the drops with her fingers. She used to love rain. It was her favourite kind of weather. Perfect for indoor games like cards or ghost stories. Her mom never liked it. She used to fall asleep on the couch while trying to keep Shin company and didn't wake up until it stopped.

Maybe it was hereditary. One of those things that broke out as you grew up and before you knew it you didn't like the things you used to like.

No! Shin suddenly decided. She was going to keep on loving rain. It didn't matter if she turned into a banana and people started calling her Kermit. She wouldn't allow anymore messing with her personality.

"I looove raaiiin...", she drawled miserably rolling her eyes and sliding down with her cheek against the glass.

A pair of hands slid in under her arms and picked her up of the table.

"No sitting on the table", Iruka instructed, setting her down on a chair.

Shin slammed her face in the wooden surface, stubbornly repeating to herself.

"Rain is great, I love rain, rain is da bomb...", not managing to make any of it sound very convincing.

"You know Shin-kun. Cats are like that too", Iruka told her from the depths of the fridge.

"What?", she screwed her head around to face him without picking it up of the table.

"They get tired from rain. It makes them sleepy", he explained, setting down potatoes and meat on the kitchen counter.

There was a brief pause.

"I don't like cats"

Iruka raised an eyebrow at her short reply.

"They're arrogant and ill-mannered"

There came a snort from the chuunin.

"What's that supposed to mean?", Shin grumbled.

"Did you know that when cats turn their heads away from you it's a show of respect", the sensei efficiently changed the subject.

"Really?", Shin asked, falling for it.

"Yes. It means that they identify you as their superior. Would you set the table for me?", Iruka continued setting down a small pile of plates and cutlery in front of her.

"Are you sure about that?", Shin asked sceptically while unconsciously setting out the glasses, "Cause it looks a lot more like a: you're-not-even-worthy-of-the-dirt-beneath-my-paws sort of behaviour"

"Trust me", Iruka said while chopping up a carrot, "I'm a teacher"

"Yeah. A _ninja_ teacher", Shin emphasised, "Not a feline expe.." she froze mid-sentence, "Iruka, could you give me another plate", her voice sounded so dull that it made the man look up from his doings.

"Shin-kun, there's only the two of us. You don't need any more plates"

She was staring emptily out the window but her arm was determinedly extended towards him.

"No, we need three plates"

They were going to need three plates. There was a chilly sensation in Shin's ear and it felt like they _really_ were going to need three plates. She felt something heavy against her palm. Seeing the china in her hand she snapped out of the trance and sat it down on the table, not noticing the worried look she was getting from Iruka. Once the plate was in place she felt a lot better and the chilliness in her ear disappeared.

"Shin-kun, why would we need a third plate?"

Shin shrugged leaning her head against the table again.

"Just a feeling"

Iruka picked up his knife again, hacking away at the onions.

"I think that feeling of yours is deceiving you. Only an idiot would go out in this weather"

Cue the kitchen door bursting open. Iruka nearly chopped of his fingers when an orange clad figure appeared out of nowhere and glomped him, leaving a trail of wet footprints through the kitchen.

"IRUKA-SENSEI!! I'M BACK! COME ON BEFORE THEY CLOSE!!"

Iruka just stood there dumbfounded for a while with knife in one hand and onion in the other, trying to collect himself. The number one loudmouth ninja of Konoha was jumping up and down in front of him jabbering away about ramen and how he practically completed the mission by himself alone, in-between shouts of Dattebayo!

Shin was watching the scene from her place by the table and was stunned by the effect seeing Naruto was having on her. It was like she hadn't realised up until now that she actually was trapped in the fictional reality of the Naruto world. Not even the close-up encounter with Kisame's kunai or the traumatising experience of being forced into the tub by Umino Iruka had accomplished anything like what was happening inside her head right now.

The last puzzle piece, the one that up until now had kept her sane by not clicking properly into place, suddenly did. Every detail from the past five days suddenly cascaded through her brain making her relive every second with the knowledge that it was **all** real.

She couldn't breath, all the blood rushed away from her head leaving to go on holiday along with logic and reason to never come back again.

Shin had been having a decent time in ninja-land and she had wondered why there hadn't been a nervous breakdown yet, apart from that first one when she had just dropped down in the forest from her closet, which she was still blaming Aslan for. Now she knew it was because it had all still been a dream to her.

The dots had been connected and the picture was painfully clear.

She had jutsud herself to Konohagakure (the neighbouring village actually, but that's beside the point), and with no idea how to get back she was now facing an existence as a four year old orphan.

Her first thought after this revelation was:

_I have to go through puberty _again_?!_

"Huh?!"

The sound made Shin snap back to what she now realised was her reality and saw that Naruto was staring at her with surprise written all over his face.

Then she remembered the mission she had given herself the very first day. She had completely forgotten that she was supposed to be warning Naruto about the team of red-masked nins coming for his head.

And here he was now! It was the perfect opportunity to get of on his good side and when she had gained his trust it would be a lot easier for her to keep an eye on him and protect him from any potential killers (or so she imagined).

Plus she would actually be friends with Naruto. The Kyuubi container Uzumaki Naruto! That was too cool for words.

Beaming she was just about to open her mouth to greet him when he beat her to it.

"Ne, ne, Iruka-sensei! Who's the brat?", he asked turning to Iruka.

Shin immediately choked on the kind words she had almost uttered on his behalf and began coughing.

"N-Naruto!", Iruka protested, "Don't be rude! Shin-kun is living with me at the moment. I'm her temporary guardian"

Shin felt a little jab somewhere in the in the rib area at the words 'at the moment' and 'temporary', but quickly brushed it of while attempting to calm down, which didn't go too well when Naruto decided to open his mouth again.

"Eeeeh?! That's a girl?", he asked giving Shin a disbelieving look.

Shin felt her eye twitch.

"O-Oi! Naruto!", Iruka hissed.

"Ne! Iruka-sensei! What happened to your floor?!", Naruto exclaimed staring at the brown marks, "Is that blood?"

Twitch.

"Come on Iruka-sensei! Let's go get some ramen! You can treat me since I finished the mission!"

Twitch.

"Na-Naruto wait! I can't leave here. I'm in the middle of making dinner"

Naruto pouted.

"Can't she eat it while we have ramen?", he whined pointing at Shin.

Twitch twitch.

"I can't leave Shin here all by herself", Iruka tried to reason.

"Ne, I think there's something wrong with her. Her face looks funny", Naruto whispered non-too discretely behind his hand.

The moment he turned to Iruka something smacked him hard in the head almost making him loose his balance.

"Oi!! What's the big idea?!", he shouted turning to face the assaulter while rubbing his head.

Shin's face was screwed up in barely contained annoyance her shoulders shaking from the tension.

"Would you...pleease.. stop trying to drag Iruka out of the house", she said in a low menacing voice

Naruto was thrown by the grown-up sentence coming from the small kid, but being Naruto it only stopped him for a second.

"I'm not dragging him!", the blonde shouted then waved his hand at her accusingly, "Who said you could call Iruka-sensei by his first name, you little brat!"

"Naruto-kun calm down. Shin doesn't know any better"

"Iruka-sensei, she's being disrespectful to you!"

Once again something smacked Naruto in the head as he turned away from Shin.

"Itai! I'll teach you to respect your elders!", he yelled at her.

"Funny!", she hollered back, "I was just about to say the same thing!"

"Shin-kun, Naru..."

"Oh yeah?!", Naruto shouted, ignoring the chuunin's attempts to mediate.

"Yeah!!"

"I'd like to see you try!" (-sweatdrops-...and he doesn't even react to the fact that she's like eight years younger than him...)

"Come on then!", Shin taunted from the chair.

"HAH! Like a weak little kid like you would stand a chance a against the future Hokage!"

"HOKAGE MY ASS!"

Iruka winced at the vulgar language and was about to interfere when he heard the sound.

"Hsssss..."

"WHAT WAS THAT GAKI-TEME?!"

It was coming from somewhere behind Shin but none of the youngsters seemed to notice.

"WANT ME TO SPELL IT FOR YA? MOOO-RROOON!"

"Hssssssssss..."

Something dark was creeping it's way up the backrest of Shin's chair and just as Iruka was about to run up and snatch her out of it, he realised what it was and halted.

"KONOYARO!!" Naruto growled and threw himself in Shin's direction fists first. (As we all know from Konohamaru's experience Naruto wouldn't hesitate to punch a kid, even if she is a girl)

"NARUTO WAIT!", Iruka shouted fearfully, grabbing for the gennin's jacket but missing.

Naruto was about to land his fist right in the face of the stupid brat when suddenly a dark form shot up from behind her, perching itself on her shoulder and leaning forward, an inch from his nose, with a baleful hiss.

Naruto stumbled backward, eyes wide in shock. He felt a hand on his shoulder and looked up to see his former teacher keeping his eyes intensely fixed on, not the crouching figure, but the little girl it was sitting on.

"Don't worry", Iruka told him in a low, even voice, "Everything is fine", then he started moving towards the monstrous black being.

Naruto wanted to open his mouth to warn him but the chuunin held up his hand to stop him without taking his eyes of Shin. The thing on her shoulder looked human. Like a young man dressed in a black cloak covering him whole, but the stance was that of an animal and the only body part showing, the teeth, belonged to a demon.

His former sensei slowly but surely approached the girl who was still glaring at Naruto, her shoulders moving up and down with her heavy breathing.

"Shin?", Iruka said softly, "Shin-chan? It's alright now. You can calm down", the glaring decreased as Iruka moved closer and her breathing slowed down, "The food is getting cold you know? We should eat it soon so that it doesn't go to waste"

As he spoke, Naruto watched the black form on the chair sink back, it's carnivorous teeth disappearing and soon it was crouching peacefully on the ground not even paying the rest of the group any attention.

"Shin?", Iruka knelt down by the chair and touched her arm, "Shin-kun, are you okay? Everything is fine. You don't have to be angry"

Shin drew a shaky breath before finally taking her eyes of Naruto and looking up at the kneeling man. She gave him an awkward smile rubbing the back of her head.

"Sorry. I guess I got a bit carried away"

"A bit!", Naruto who had just got his breath back, exclaimed, "You call that a bit?!"

He received an intense glare and a ripple went through the back of the cloaked thing sitting on the floor. Iruka sent him a warning look and he shut up.

"Shin-kun, would you tell Hush to move away from the table while we eat", Iruka asked the girl, still holding up a calm and relaxed facade.

"Hush?", she looked at him in surprise, "He's in the study where you told me to put him"

Both of the males stared at her, but for different reasons.

"You didn't notice...?", Iruka began.

"THAT THING HAS A NAME?!", Naruto shouted pointing at the figure by the chair

Shin glared evilly at him before suddenly noticing Hush beside her.

"Hush! What are you doing here? You're supposed to be in the study"

After a moment of silence, during which Shin watched him intently, Hush rose and walked out the kitchen, reminding everyone very much of a certain well endowed blonde.

"Hm... maybe not quite the right moves for him", Shin muttered to herself.

Dinner turned out to become a rather tense affair. Naruto kept throwing Shin weird looks not even bothering to hide it. Shin responded by promptly ignoring him, which took a lot of effort on her part and caused her eye to twitch annoyingly. Iruka watched them and every once in a while sending Shin a troubled glance. Albeit he was more discreet than his former student it didn't go unnoticed by the girl.

Nobody said a thing during the whole meal and it looked as if they were all going to get through it unscathed. It wasn't until Naruto was about to leave that the silence was broken.

Standing up in his chair he grinned at his former sensei.

"Gochisousama!", he exclaimed clapping his hands together, "I have to go now Iruka-sensei. Thanks for dinner"

That's when a small piece of carrot smacked stuck to the side of his face. Turning around he saw Shin with a spoon in her hand looking innocently in the other direction. Iruka quickly figured out where this was going and snatched Shin out of the chair before the two of them started all over again.

"Will you be staying around for a while this time?", he asked walking Naruto over to the door.

The anger instantly disappeared from his face.

"Yeah! Kakashi-sensei was late with a couple of reports and Tsunade-bachan won't let him leave until they're done"

"Oh? Yes, that does sound like him", he agreed and hoisted Shin further up on his hip. While doing this he noticed a pout forming on Naruto's face, "How about you come by the Academy tomorrow and I'll treat you to that ramen you were talking about?"

The sour look on the boy's face vanished and was replaced by a broad smile.

Then to Iruka's surprise, Shin leaned closer (something she had never ever _ever_ done when he carried her) and tilted her head against his cheek.

"Irukaa...I don't like ramen...", she whined softly.

The poor chuunin was so shocked by her weird behaviour that for a moment nothing came out of his mouth.

Naruto who had been beaming before was now gritting his teeth on the receiving end of Shin's malicious smile. Iruka's brain was preoccupied and the invisible daggers went unnoticed by the adult, as was the decapitating gesture done by Naruto and the rude face Shin responded with. The silent battle ended without any victor when the sensei finally came to and waved Naruto off at the door, but the _war_ was just beginning.

* * *

Thanks to everyone who reviewed!! Your enthusiasm is fantastic!! I'm really happy you all like the story.

Ja matah! :D

/Cookies from Lemur

* * *


	15. Enemy Draws Near and Shin gets what?

**CHAPTER 16: **Enemy Draws Near and Shin gets what...?

The sky was still blue but the sun had already past zenith and another day at the Academy had ended for most. Though it seemed that for some it was going to drag on for a bit longer.

_'I seriously dislike that man sometimes'_, Shin grumbled mentally as she continued what she had been doing for the past 25 minutes, which was a most humiliating activity involving a stuffed animal (probably a rabbit but she wasn't sure) and a unnecessarily shiny red ball.

Iruka had brought her to the Academy with him like he had done the day before to catch up on some work, and like the day before she had more or less slept the entire time, since last night hadn't offered any sleep either. When work was over he had picked her up (much to Shin's embarrassment) and handed her over to a familiar looking young woman called Hana-something-or-other, telling them both that he would be back in less than an hour. Soon after he had left, Shin managed to figure out that she had indeed met the Hana-person before. About a week and a half ago when she first went to see the Hokage.

At the same time she also realised that she had been tricked. That blasted teacher had snuck of to have ramen with Naruto and left her behind. After that she had tried plotting her revenge on them both, Iruka because he had thought he'd actually get away with it and Naruto for just being down right annoying. Shin knew that this was very immature of her, but lack of sleep passed for an acceptable excuse to be childish today. Unfortunately, the person insisting on Shin calling her Hana-neechan (even though Shin was quite convinced Iruka had called her something else) was under the misimpression that Shin really wanted to have her hair braided and the only way to get her to leave her alone was by pretending to be interested in something cute and pleasant (i.o.w. not plotting the demise of her current landlord and his ex-student), since Hana-neechan just kept brushing of all Shin's attempts at reasoning with her.

['-nee' is a suffix that means older sister. Pronounced: Neh.]

That was the cause as to why Shin found herself playing ball with a plush bunny while begging to Loki and Thor that she would notice the others' return before either of them saw her.

In the middle of constructing her plan, so far containing Iruka's explosive tags (which he had hid on the top shelf of the hall closet, out of reach for children) and some yet to be identified purple goo, Shin felt her ear twitch. And it wasn't the nervous tick she had developed from having Hana-neechan pulling on her hair. She looked up to see if the woman by the desk was watching her. She wasn't.

Shin's ear twitched again. She got to her knees and crawled over to the window. She wasn't quite sure why at first, but as she got closer she heard the distinct jingle of bells. Pulling herself up, peering over the windowsill she spotted something red slipping over the fence and into the courtyard below. Her interest piqued Shin managed to successfully slink out of the office room without getting noticed. Out in the hallway no one bothered to stop her. Since this was a school and all, people were used to seeing children running about the place. Although most of the children had gone home by now.

Pausing in the doorway, Shin scanned the seemingly empty yard before her. A breeze stirred up a small whirl of dust but other than that everything was completely still.

There it was again! Her eyes shot over to a pillar supporting the protruding roof.

"I know you're there"

"I thought you would", was the unfazed reply.

After a short silence Shin realised that the other wasn't going to continue.

"School's over you know", she pointed out.

"It would seem that way"

"You go here?"

"I don't"

If she hadn't been sure before she was definitely certain now. Nobody else she had met had given such avoiding, unsatisfactory answers.

"So what are you doing here?", she wanted to know.

"I came to see how you were doing, Shin-chan", the other replied without the slightest shift in tone.

Shin wasn't sure if she was supposed to feel flattered or disturbed by the straight out confession.

"Oh... Well, I guess everything's good. Besides getting ditched for some little blond I'm doing just great", it was meant as a joke but for some reason it came out sounding more bitter than she had intended.

She shook it of and a wry smile formed on her face as her thoughts travelled back to the plan in progress. Looking up again she saw that her company had stepped out from behind the pillar. The raven-haired girl didn't so much as quirk an eyebrow at Shin's little display of malicious intent, or her strange joke.

"How are your ears?", she asked, "Have they grown any bigger?"

Shin reflexively grabbed one of her ears, not sure if Suzu was joking or not. The other had yet to give a sign of any emotion whatsoever.

"You didn't seem to have any trouble sneaking out", she continued, more like a statement.

"I've gotten loads of practise"

The older girl seemed to wait for her to continue.

"Iruka won't let me go anywhere by myself so..."

"That's pretty normal for a four year ol-"

"I'm seventeen, dammit!!", Shin exclaimed before she could stop herself.

This time Suzu did quirk an eyebrow, and for a second she thought she had seen a twitch at the corner of the girls mouth.

_Maybe I should consider not telling people that anymore?, _she thought.

"Is that so?"

Shin began picking at the bandages on one of her feet deciding elaborating was a bad idea.

"In that case I can see why you would want to get away more", Suzu turned her gaze towards the empty courtyard as if not particularly interested in the topic.

Shin couldn't tell if she was being believed, made fun of, or if the kid simply didn't care how old she thought she was.

"I _could_ teach you to become invisible if you'd like"

This caught Shin's attention. She hesitated, wondering what Suzu had up her sleeve. There was always something up the sleeve, usually her sleeve and mostly it was cards.

"What's the catch?", she wanted to know.

Sure Suzu was barely half her real age but Shin wasn't going to be tricked by appearances. The kid was most definitely a ninja and probably a lot more clever than her stature was letting on.

"No catch"

"Come on. There's always a catch. What do you want in return?"

Now Shin was convinced that she had seen a smile tugging at the other girls face and wondered if it was a good or bad sign.

"Well then...", the dark-haired girl gave in, "You have to call me sensei"

"What? Why?! I do know what that means you know! People are calling Iruka that all the time"

"Then you should see why it would be appropriate to address me the same way"

Shin didn't see however, cause she hadn't really been telling the truth about knowing what it meant. Of course she understood it was some sort of honorific. There seemed to be a lot of them around here and she had no idea of how to make use of them since she wasn't catching on to any specific pattern. On one side Iruka was mostly referred to as sensei by almost everyone, but sometimes that changed to -san or -kun without any obvious reason. She had also noticed that her lack of usage when it came to these little words wasn't entirely appreciated.

"Fine", she agreed unwilling to reveal her ignorance, "You got yourself a deal", she extended her hand up towards the girl, to which Suzu's response was to look at it and then back at Shin's face.

_'Oops! Alternate universe behaviour? Or is she just being rude?'_

"Grab it", she instructed.

Suzu assessed it cooly for a couple of seconds before finally grabbing the extended hand. The touch sent a jolt of _something_ right up Shin's arm. It shot up to the nape of her neck and spread like freezing tendrils over her back and up on her scalp. She shivered. Regaining her composure quickly she shook the hand and hurriedly let go.

"Right!", she said, hands on hips, "So when do we start?"

"Right away", Suzu said with a glance at the Academy building and disappeared in cloud of smoke.

.....................................

Iruka walked down the main road of Konoha, heading back towards the Academy. He wasn't exactly at the top of his game today. His mind had been elsewhere since yesterday and on top of that he was dead tired. Last night he hadn't managed to get any sleep since he couldn't free himself from the image of the black monster that had been Hush. How dangerous was he really? The Hokage had assured him that there was no need for him to worry. Not yet, at least. Whatever that meant. He wasn't entirely satisfied with being kept in the dark like this, but he would trust the Hokage's word and let the being continue living in his hallway closet.

Iruka passed the Academy gates and distractedly headed towards the entrance.

Another thing that bothered him was something he had noticed while lying awake during the night. He had heard noises from the study. At first he had just thought that maybe she was a restless sleeper, turning over again and again, but the later it got the clearer it was that she wasn't sleeping at all. This got him to wonder if it had happened before, but he couldn't remember seeing a trace of insomniatic behaviour before. She had slept peacefully, if not for a few random strange mutterings just after bedtime. When he thought about it, she had been looking very dreary lately.

He slid open a door and stepped into the main office. Here he halted for a moment, coming out of his musings. His eyes quickly swept over the area and determined that it was completely Shin-free. Iruka felt his pulse quicken.

"Ah, Iruka-sensei!", Hanako waved at him from across the room, looking a little to happy for someone who had managed to loose the kid they were supposed to be baby-sitting.

He started to calm down again. Surely this meant Shin was somewhere nearby.

"Hanako-san, I hope it wasn't too much trouble", he walked over to her desk, feeling a little better when she shook her head.

"No, trouble at all", she smiled, "We-", and then she stopped when her eyes fell on a red ball sitting on the floor, accompanied by what Iruka thought might have been a stuffed pig.

He felt his heart begin to race again when he saw the look on Hanako's face.

"But...", she mumbled to herself, "I thought... She was her just a minute ago, Iruka-sensei", she assured him, "I could have sworn...", she trailed of.

"Where did you see her last?", he asked curtly.

If it was anything like last time there was a possibility that she was still in the room. Hiding somewhere he suspected, or... Well he wasn't exactly sure what the alternative was.

"She was sitting right there", Hanako pointed to the toys on the floor.

"And you didn't see her leave?"

"No. But... She seemed perfectly fine playing by herself, so I wasn't watching her all that carefully. I'm so sorry, I should've been paying more attention"

Iruka stared at the spot where the child supposedly had been sitting, like he thought she would suddenly pop out of thin air. He walked over and squatted beside the pig and carefully examined the air in front of him.

"Ano... Iruka-sensei?", Hanako carefully peered over his shoulder, "Shouldn't we be searching for Shin-chan?"

Iruka was busy trying to distinguish the slightest disturbance in the atmosphere and didn't answer. He carefully reached out a hand and for a moment he thought he saw something before-

"SENSEI! WILL YOU JUST GET OUT HERE ALREADY! THIS IS-", followed by a long line of profanities from somewhere outside the window.

Hanako backed away slowly as Iruka's face had begun to take on an intriguing shade of maroon.

..................................................................

Shin was stomping around heatedly beneath the wide crown of a tree and kicking up as much dirt as she could manage, trying to release some frustration. Suzu had disappeared and was nowhere in sight. That didn't mean she wasn't there. She had been earlier, but now Shin was starting to suspect she had snuck off without her noticing.

"Why that little-"

WHAM! Shin looked up at the sudden noise. Had the girl re-appeared again? Her guts turned to ice when she realised what had caused the disturbance. She could sense the killer-intent from across the courtyard. In the open doorway to the Academy stood the embodiment of ire. Every person's fear combined. She swallowed as it took a step in her direction.

"Err... um... Iruka? I can explain"

No reply. The impending doom picked up pace and was heading straight towards her. Shin had a childish urge to run in the opposite direction, so she promptly turned on her heal and tried to make a break for it. Tried being the keyword, as she immediately choked on her collar.

"Where.", the single word sent a chill up her spine, "Do. You", she was dragged back the few steps she had gotten, "Think. You. Are. Going?"

A sinking feeling of dread settled in her stomach as she was lifted of the ground by the back of her shirt. Being spun around she was forced to meet the deadly stare of the enraged Sensei, and for a moment she pitied Izumo and Kotetsu whom she had placed in it's line of fire twice already. Iruka's face was scary as hell when he dragged out the next word.

"Shiiin."

She felt all blood drain from her face. Completely forgetting that she was really seventeen years old her lower lip began to quiver and her brain started searching for a victim to blame the whole thing on. Before she had time to register what had happened, Iruka had gone down on one knee and slung her across the other.

_'Wait! He's not gonna-'!'_

Smack!

Shin was so stunned that she didn't even cry out. Then there was another one.

Smack!

This one actually reached her brain. It also hurt like no tomorrow. The logical part of her figured it was the shinobi training shining through and sort of felt sorry for the kids growing up in the village.

That is, before she realised what had just happened. By then she had already been placed on her feet and was being hauled back towards the building by her ear. She stared up at the older man in shock. (As much as she could from the awkward position anyway.) He had spanked her! He had actually _spanked_ her! _Her_! _She_ had been _spanked_! It didn't matter how many times she repeated it inside her head she still couldn't believe it. He... No she wasn't going to say it again.

They walked in, Iruka gave a strained smiled and a nod towards Hanako who had been standing nervously just inside the doorway before they stalked out of the Academy on the other side and out through the gates.

..................................................

Iruka was seething on his bed. The nerve! The first thing he had realised when he'd heard her voice outside was that whatever he had thought he had seen in the air a second ago was his own imagination. The second was that he was still waving around his arms in front of him like a blind person. And after that he had comprehended the words that had just been shouted loud enough for the entire Academy to hear, though he believed that no one would be able to translate half of them. Upon realising that the target for his search was right outside, he had stormed of without another thought.

Iruka sighed and closed his eyes. He rolled over on his back in an attempt to relax. The stupid little runt had really scared him. He wasn't sure why it had given him such a scare, but it had. More than it should have. Of course he ought to be concerned if she suddenly disappears like that. The Fifth had assigned him this mission after all. It was important.

In afterthought he might have been a bit harsh. They hadn't even been searching for five minutes before he had found her, and she had only been just outside. However he looked at it now, it seemed that he had been a little too strict. He turned on his side again, coming to a decision. He was going to make an effort to teach Shin proper behaviour. That way they wouldn't end up in that situation again and she wouldn't drive her parents out of their minds after they'd found them. It was a good idea. Hopefully she wouldn't end up hating him for it.

There was a muffled sound of shuffling blankets. He lay still and waited for it to settle down. She was still awake at this hour. He glanced at the alarm-clock on his windowsill. Already past one in the morning. This was going to be a long night.

...............................................

Shin was still in shock. She had gone over the events of the day, over and over again in her head, and still found it hard to believe. It had been several years since she was last spanked and even then she had done something far worse to deserve it. The look on Iruka's face when he had come storming out of the Academy had been scary enough to give anyone nightmares and when they had gotten back to the flat he had sent her to her room with a stoney expression.

A small giggle escaped her. She had actually been sent to her room! Granted it was actually his study, but that wasn't what he'd said when he ordered her to go in there and not come out until he said so.

It was almost nostalgic. The feeling of guilt and at the same time being wrongfully accused. It was five years now since she had felt it.

_'I wonder what I can do to make him stop being mad at me?'_

The thought had just snuck up on her and she instantly shook it of.

_'Why should I do anything? It doesn't matter if he's mad or not. He can be mad all he wants'_

She gave her pillow a sharp jab.

_'Maybe I should go somewhere?',_ she speculated sourly_, 'It's a lot more comfortable living alone. How come I ended up here?'_

She thought back to the day in Tsunade's office with a shudder. That woman was up on Iruka's level of scariness and Shin had actually been picking a fight with her. She couldn't remember things too clearly, exhausted and starved as she had been. They must have decided on these living arrangements after she passed out. Most probably had Tsunade shoved the responsibility over on Iruka after finally receiving the important information. At least that had been done. Shin had successfully delivered the warning about the ninja targeting Naruto.

She closed her eyes with a groan. Her other goal had been completely ruined however, and by the person whom she was doing it for no less. Dammit, that Naruto! He could go get off:ed by red-masked bad-asses if he so pleased, see if she cared. At least the Hokage knew about it now and would be on guard against... Shin's eyes flew open again as she realised she had never mentioned a word about the Nins going after Naruto. She _had_ told them about the plans to kill the demon, but had they heard that part? Focus had seemed to be directed at the fact that Konoha had been betrayed and that the Akatsuki was involved. They must understand whose life was in danger? She had no idea what the thing with the Black scrolls was about and even _she_ understood. So they were going to take some sort of precautions right? Sighing heavily she stared up at the ceiling. Maybe she should stay close by just in case. So she could warn Naruto if something were to come up. He was bound to show up around Iruka so she'd have to continue living here. There was no helping it. Not because she wanted to but in order to protect him she would put up with the teacher for a little while longer. She settled down again with a content smile tugging at the corner of her mouth.

_'Not that I want to...'_

_................................_

Several kilometres north of Konohagakure:

"Report"

Sato landed in a crouch on the thick branch and bowed his head to Roujo Daichi.

"We have received confirmation about the targets position but there have been no more sightings of Uchiha Itachi or his companion"

Daichi leaned back against the trunk of the tree and took a long draw of the beautifully engraved pipe in his hand. Sato waited patiently while he held the smoke in before finally releasing it again.

"He is biding his time", Daichi replied.

"What are your orders?"

Another silence ensued. The young man seemed not to have heard him but Sato knew better. After a while Daichi turned his gaze to him.

"What news of the villages?"

"The mission to Kimura has been completed. It seems Konoha is aware of the situation. We were just in time before an ANBU-messenger from Konoha arrived at the location. The third scroll was destroyed on sight. One casualty"

"And the child?"

"No news. We tracked it back to the shrine, after that there was no trace what so ever"

Daichi stood up fixing Sato with his stare.

"I want to know Uchiha Itachi's purpose. If he is still in the area he must be aware that the Third Scroll is gone. The others should be useless without it, unless...", the Roujo heir paused mid sentence, "Find out as much as possible on the child and if there is any possibility that the Uchiha knows about it's existence"

"What about Konoha?"

"Surely they already know what we aim to do. Just make sure to not reveal our location"

Sato bowed his head once before disappearing from the branch. Roujo Daichi's grip on the pipe hardened and he glared in disgust at the spider web of white lines riddling his hand.

"Uchiha must never have that kind of power again", he hissed.

.................................................................................................

I will soon add a layout map over Iruka's apartment on my profile. Please check it out. :D

No Hush in this chapter, I'm sooorry~ He just isn't that important.

Okay, I lied. He is majorly important but the people who matters (Beloved Iruka-sensei, Shin, Naruto, our card-playing guards and well... Sasuke hasn't even shown up yet, has he? He will. I promise.) doesn't know that yet. And more characters are soon to join the party.

Shin will start to expose that she might have more knowledge than your random 4 year old should. Why is she attacked by Kakashi? How will she protect Naruto without strangling him in the process? And where are the whispers coming from?

*** **And Thank you, 'fullnaruto', for writing this random and funny comment which seriously made me want to update that same day.

"dudete, dude, bro, sistah, friend, foe, mate, peer, or wtvr, srsly, update already!

and I dont want to be harsh or anything but...you are a noncompoop"

_{Of course I do appreciate feedback as well as a random scolding for not updating__(^o^)}_

*** **The **next chapter **will either come some time within this month or in August, since I will be spending my entire summer in Japan! (Studying my ass off) but still. It's in Japan! On the 6 of June I will be going to maid cafés in Akihabara~

Oh! And as for the **Other Story**. It'll probably be uploaded soon. The concept of waking up in the Shinobi World and that it supposedly **is** the Real World and the place we are in now is the imagined one, is so intriguing I can't leave it to rot!

I hereby encourage anyone to use that theme and write about it! There are too few down to earth approaches to the issue of ending up in Naruto-verse. (..... is it just me or did that sentence sound a bit wrong?)

Rant for the purpose of releasing the bane of every author. _**Writer'sBlock~**_

I practically have the entire story in my head but the timeline keeps screwing me over and just being (to quote someone famous) very troublesome. I even have the begin of a sequel!

I encourage anyone who wants, to add their opinions on which direction they would like the story to take, or if there are any specific characters that ought to get involved, or funny events that should take place.

I find it very inspiring. :)


	16. FALSE ALERT!

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**FALSE ALERT!!**

**(Well at least now the chapters will have the right number...) **

Sorry to bother you all like this when it isn't a real up-date. I just needed to tell you that Sasuke's name snuck itself in where it shouldn't have been. (Probably because I'm writing on his and Shin's meeting)

It should have been ITACHI and it's been corrected now but, THERE IS NO SASUKE WHATSOEVER IN THIS CHAPTER. (no matter what it said before) Sorry~

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I also just realized '**beggermanthief**'has been with me on this story from the very beginning. Since Oktober **2007!!** That's like 2 ½ years! (God I'm a slow update:er.) Thought that it needed to be acknowledged. Thank you!! I love your reviews! b(^o^)

You actually made me realize a very important thing that I can't say anything about yet since it'll spoil the plot. (^u^) Also, it got me to think a little more about Shin's age-issue and I have now settled on how that'll turn out.

(It is however a bit uncertain since everyone who knew anything about the reason behind her little problem are dead! And I don't claim to be an expert on the area...)

Thanks for letting me know you think Shin should interact with some more characters. I did think so too and since we both did it must be true. Therefor there will be some more characters in the next chapter.

OH!** Crazy-Crasian **I didn't know if you were still with me!（⌒o⌒）b ~ (That and I was blinded by beggemanthief's long and pretty review （＾▽＾） Thanks for sticking! I'm honored that my story gets to be your favorite! I hope you'll continue to enjoy it. I'll work hard to not let you down! Yosh, ganbarimasu~

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** THIS IS NOW THE OFFICIAL PLACE FOR ME RANTING OR ADDING RANDOM NEWS ABOUT UPDATES AND SO ON**:

**ONEGAI:** I study Japanese and it's giving me serious spelling issues so please let me know about any weirdities you might notice. (-.-;)

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